Albany Medical Annals Vol 10 PDF Download

Excerpt from Albany Medical Annals, Vol. 10: January, 1889 On opening the thorax, the cavities on the right side of the heart were found empty, containing no frothy blood, and the left side of the heart was also empty. The lungs were everywhere congested, but nothing else abnormal was discovered in the chest. The uterus contained a fœtus nearly four inches in length, when extended, and presumably at about the eleventh week of utero-gestation. The uterus was distended with air, the volume of air being about equal to that of the fœtus and its envelope. The ovum was intact, the placenta not yet well formed, its adhesion to the wall entirely intact. On opening the uterus, air escaped, and two or three ecchymotic spots the size of a silver ten-cent piece or quarter of a dollar were observed, but at no point was the mucous membrane of the uterus lacerated. All the other abdominal organs were in a condition of health. The brain was not examined. The hypothetical question was put to me, embracing very fairly the points above given, and I was asked what, in my opinion, was the cause of death. My reply was, assuming all the above facts, that I believed the woman died from shock, the result of the introduction into the uterus of the catheter and the subsequent sudden, forcible dilatation of that organ with air. The medical gentleman who was examined for the defense, though it was difficult to see how his evidence tended to help the prisoner at the bar, swore that it was his belief that the woman died of air-embolism, the air obtaining admission to the venous circulation through the uterine sinuses. There are cases recorded in which sudden death from air-embolism after confinement has occurred, and in the attempt to procure criminal abortion; but in each of these, so far as I have been able to ascertain, there have been post-mortem evidences that the placenta had been detached from the uterine wall and the uterine sinuses thereby opened for the admission of air. In this case it was sworn to positively that there was no detachment of what little placenta there was, and no laceration of the mucous membrane lining the uterus. The expert for the defense was asked whether at this stage of utero-gestation the mouths of the uterine sinuses were not closed and covered over by some membrane, to which he replied that they were not. In considering this matter calmly and deliberately, I must confess my inability to see how it was possible, under all the circumstances sworn to, for air to have entered the venous circulation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.