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MR. CRAIG'S WORK ON PROTRACTED LABOURS.
349
ping being perfect, however, and the tooth observation, it appeared to me that the doses not having been previously tender or painful, of laudanum which I had used were the it was patiently endured for upwards of a maximum quantities that could with safety week, when headach and fever having super- be administered to parturient women ; it folvened, and little or no relief following the lows that the doses named by the reviewer application of leeches or fomentation, the are not only dangerousbut may even be- fatal tooth was removed. On examining it, I ones. found a large cavity produced in the subIn the observations made on the twelfth stance of the root by the pressure of matter case of protracted labour,’ the reviewer thrown out from the internal membrane and says, " Having made her (the patient) swal-
pulp. The external wall of this cavity was low two drachms of laudanum," &c. ; and extremely thin, and in one part there was an again, " The third drachm was given." It is actual perforation. It was evident that almost needless to repeat that I never gave either the pressure of the stopping upon more than three doses of laudanum, of sixty some part of the lining membrane had set up drops each, in any case, which is little more a suppurative process, or that having pre- than the half which the reviewer makes me viously occurred, the matter was in the same to say was given. Again, he states that, In either case the tooth " after a dreadful night of pain and vomiting, manner confined. been preserved by the the child was born at five in the morning." have doubtless might timely adoption of some such plan as I have Now, in the work it is distinctly stated, that here recommended, With many apologies after the means of relief were employed the for occupying so much of your valuable patient became much easier, especially in space on a subject which may probably in- the intervals between the pains, when she terest only a portion of your readers, I am, fell asleep. She vomited only twice. This
Sir,
your obedient
Argyle-street, MR.
servant,
EDWIN SAUNDERS. Nov. 19th.
CRAIG’S WORK
ON
PRO-
TRACTED LABOURS. MR.
CRAIG, of Paisley, wished
z,
us to appaper inserted last week the fol- I lowing remarks on another point. Not then having room to comply with his desire we publish them now. Mr. Craig says,I should feel grateful to be permitted in this place to inform the readers of the " British and Foreign Medical Review," that, in the rumber of that publication for October, 1839, my work on Protracted Labours, &c., has been, in my view, very incorrectly noticed. As I entertained no doubt that the perversions made in the review relative to some of my statements were unintentional, I immediately wrote to the editor, requesting him to correct the errors, which I pointed out, but he replied, 111I see no sufficient reason for giving your comments a place in our pages," and added, "You have not invalidated any of the charges in that article," &c. The following arefew of the corrections that I requested to be made :At page 471 the reviewer says that my treatment in protracted labours " consists in giving the patient a drachm of laudanum at a dose, and repeating it twice more, if necessary." Now, my treatment consists in giving sixty drops of laudanum at a dose, and repeating it twice more if necessary. The quantity which the reviewer makes me recommend is about double the quantity mentioned in my book. I have noticed in
pend to his
another part of the work
was one of the most severe and obstinate labours which I have attended for many years, and yet the child was born alive twelve hours after the commencement of labour, and the mother without a bad symptom. Notwithstanding the monstrous doses of laudanum which the reviewer says were child given in this case, he admitted that the * * * was born at five in the morning. *
In the remarks on the fourth chapter, "Uterine haemorrhage after the birth of the child," the reviewer goes on to say, " And here we think that the author even out-does himself. We are, he says, neither to wait until we seeasmall stream of blood trickling over the bedside,’nor until we are informed that there is a large discharge.’(P. 164.)" But when reference is made to page 164 of my book, no passage of this sort IS to be found ; no, nor in any part of the book. Indeed, to have so expressed myself with reference to the subject discussed would have been sheer nonsense.
NATURE WITHOUT AID.
GERMAN, aged 35, was struck by a musket-ball, which perforated the middle of the right thigh, fracturing the femur. He was perfectly unmanageable, and would not allow himself to be handled, so that hardly any treatment was employed. Feb. 13th (three months after), the thigh was shortened four inches, and about a fourth thicker than the left; the wounds in the soft parts had healed, and he was confined to bed in conA
sequence of ascites and anasarca, of which he died on the 19th of April. This case shows the result of no treatment, and the amount of shortening in a fractured femur when left to itself.-Dr. Stratton, Edin.
that, from careful, four., Oct.
ping being perfect, however, and the tooth observation, it appeared to me that the doses not having been previously tender or painful, of laudanum which I had used were the it was patiently endured for upwards of a maximum quantities that could with safety week, when headach and fever having super- be administered to parturient women ; it folvened, and little or no relief following the lows that the doses named by the reviewer application of leeches or fomentation, the are not only dangerousbut may even be- fatal tooth was removed. On examining it, I ones. found a large cavity produced in the subIn the observations made on the twelfth stance of the root by the pressure of matter case of protracted labour,’ the reviewer thrown out from the internal membrane and says, " Having made her (the patient) swal-
pulp. The external wall of this cavity was low two drachms of laudanum," &c. ; and extremely thin, and in one part there was an again, " The third drachm was given." It is actual perforation. It was evident that almost needless to repeat that I never gave either the pressure of the stopping upon more than three doses of laudanum, of sixty some part of the lining membrane had set up drops each, in any case, which is little more a suppurative process, or that having pre- than the half which the reviewer makes me viously occurred, the matter was in the same to say was given. Again, he states that, In either case the tooth " after a dreadful night of pain and vomiting, manner confined. been preserved by the the child was born at five in the morning." have doubtless might timely adoption of some such plan as I have Now, in the work it is distinctly stated, that here recommended, With many apologies after the means of relief were employed the for occupying so much of your valuable patient became much easier, especially in space on a subject which may probably in- the intervals between the pains, when she terest only a portion of your readers, I am, fell asleep. She vomited only twice. This
Sir,
your obedient
Argyle-street, MR.
servant,
EDWIN SAUNDERS. Nov. 19th.
CRAIG’S WORK
ON
PRO-
TRACTED LABOURS. MR.
CRAIG, of Paisley, wished
z,
us to appaper inserted last week the fol- I lowing remarks on another point. Not then having room to comply with his desire we publish them now. Mr. Craig says,I should feel grateful to be permitted in this place to inform the readers of the " British and Foreign Medical Review," that, in the rumber of that publication for October, 1839, my work on Protracted Labours, &c., has been, in my view, very incorrectly noticed. As I entertained no doubt that the perversions made in the review relative to some of my statements were unintentional, I immediately wrote to the editor, requesting him to correct the errors, which I pointed out, but he replied, 111I see no sufficient reason for giving your comments a place in our pages," and added, "You have not invalidated any of the charges in that article," &c. The following arefew of the corrections that I requested to be made :At page 471 the reviewer says that my treatment in protracted labours " consists in giving the patient a drachm of laudanum at a dose, and repeating it twice more, if necessary." Now, my treatment consists in giving sixty drops of laudanum at a dose, and repeating it twice more if necessary. The quantity which the reviewer makes me recommend is about double the quantity mentioned in my book. I have noticed in
pend to his
another part of the work
was one of the most severe and obstinate labours which I have attended for many years, and yet the child was born alive twelve hours after the commencement of labour, and the mother without a bad symptom. Notwithstanding the monstrous doses of laudanum which the reviewer says were child given in this case, he admitted that the * * * was born at five in the morning. *
In the remarks on the fourth chapter, "Uterine haemorrhage after the birth of the child," the reviewer goes on to say, " And here we think that the author even out-does himself. We are, he says, neither to wait until we seeasmall stream of blood trickling over the bedside,’nor until we are informed that there is a large discharge.’(P. 164.)" But when reference is made to page 164 of my book, no passage of this sort IS to be found ; no, nor in any part of the book. Indeed, to have so expressed myself with reference to the subject discussed would have been sheer nonsense.
NATURE WITHOUT AID.
GERMAN, aged 35, was struck by a musket-ball, which perforated the middle of the right thigh, fracturing the femur. He was perfectly unmanageable, and would not allow himself to be handled, so that hardly any treatment was employed. Feb. 13th (three months after), the thigh was shortened four inches, and about a fourth thicker than the left; the wounds in the soft parts had healed, and he was confined to bed in conA
sequence of ascites and anasarca, of which he died on the 19th of April. This case shows the result of no treatment, and the amount of shortening in a fractured femur when left to itself.-Dr. Stratton, Edin.
that, from careful, four., Oct.