The Philosophy of Female Health

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and which is strikingly illustrative of a supposed disease of the heart being merely symptomatic of the state of the uterus. CASE I. A young lady, the daughter of Colonel, residing in the north of Ireland, of fair complexion, had suffered for some time from complete derangement of the general health,...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and which is strikingly illustrative of a supposed disease of the heart being merely symptomatic of the state of the uterus. CASE I. A young lady, the daughter of Colonel, residing in the north of Ireland, of fair complexion, had suffered for some time from complete derangement of the general health, accompanied with severe palpitations of the heart, which were ultimately succeeded by a cough, and these had so far reduced her strength that little hopes were entertained of recovery. Her parents became very anxious; and observing that her health was gradually declining, notwithstanding that the ordinary routine of treatment had been pursued, determined to remove her to Dublin, where an eminent physician was consulted; but their apprehensions were by no means allayed by his report. I am not aware of the nature of the plan adopted under his directions, but the result was, that the health of this very delicate patient was not in the least improved; on the contrary, it gradually declined. The palpitations of the heart increased in violence, and she was in consequence brought to London for further advice. A consulting surgeon, who saw the case, declared that he could afford only temporary relief, and recommended the administration of digitalis three times a day, but held out no hopes of recovery, or of any permanent benefit. At this juncture, being in attendance on another branch of the family, I was requested to see the patient, and to give a candid opinion, whether any reasonable hope could be entertained of improvement or ultimate recovery. The father, who had carefully and anxiously watched the symptoms of his suffering daughter, was engaged, just before my interview, in counting the number of the pulsations of the heart per minute, by merely looking at the violent th...