Chapter II: The Peculiarities of Certain Accidental Acute and Chronic Diseases (3)

Ergot, hydrastis canadensis, potassium iodide, ammonium chloride, strychnia, are among the remedial agents which are supposed to have some direct effect upon the condition of the uterine parenchyma. Ergot may be exhibited by the mouth or hypodermatically. Squibb's fluid extract, while an active and tolerably agreeable preparation, is not as effective as the decoction employed on an extensive scale in many of the German hospitals, and the formula of which we append:

Rx. Secalis cornuti recent. pulver., 15.0
Alcohol., 5.0
Acidi sulphurici, 2.0
Aquæ, 500.0
Coque ad 200.0
Ne cola.
Adde Syr. cinnamom., 30.0

Dose: Two to three teaspoonfuls, pro re nata. This unfiltered decoction is extremely distasteful, and its continued use is not without effect upon the gastric mucous membrane. It is, however, physiologically very active. Subcutaneous injections of Squibb's aqueous extract of ergot may be occasionally employed with benefit to keep up the impression of the remedy when exhibition per os is interrupted. Schatz speaks in high terms of the fluid extract of hydrastis canadensis in doses of fifteen to twenty drops two or three times daily.

All European writers ascribe an important influence to the numerous watering-places and baths of the Continent in the treatment of chronic uterine infarct. The rigid observance of hygienic rules, the imbibition of enormous quantities of water more or less impregnated with salines and carbonic acid, the frequent bathings, exercise, and recreation, undoubtedly effect amelioration of symptoms in many desperate cases.

Acute Endometritis.

ETIOLOGY.--An acute inflammation of the mucous membrane of the uterus is a rare affection before puberty. The acute infectious diseases play an important rôle in the production of the condition. The acute exanthems--smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, cholera, typhus, typhoid, and relapsing fever, certain forms of malarial fever--deserve mention in this connection. Probably owing to some change in the constitution {461} of the blood, these diseases predispose to the hemorrhagic form of acute endometritis. The rapid cooling off of extensive areas of the skin surface during menstruation frequently leads to an acute inflammation of the endometrium, with suppression of the flow as one of the first symptoms. Gonorrhoeal infection and sepsis are most important causative factors. Ill-advised therapeutic procedures, as in the case of acute metritis, must be included in the list of causative agencies. Finally, acute endometritis may be caused by various poisons. Among toxic agents which may give origin to the condition under discussion phosphorus is especially noteworthy.[40]

[Footnote 40: Hausmann, _Berl. Beitr. z. Geb. u. Gyn._, Bd. i. S. 265.]

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY.--The entire lining membrane of the uterine cavity may be involved in the inflammatory process; usually, the mucosa of the body and fundus is affected, the mucosa of the cervical canal remaining normal. The mucous membrane is of a dark-red color, swollen, softened, and presents a velvety appearance. Its connection with the muscularis is loosened, so that it can frequently be stripped off with the handle of a scalpel. Minute extravasations of blood are visible in the superficial layers and on the surface. The interglandular connective tissue is the seat of the inflammatory process. The glands are involved secondarily. The ciliated epithelium is destroyed and cast off at an early stage. The bloody discharge from the uterine cavity becomes serous, and finally purulent, during the progress of the condition. The cervical secretion becomes thin, turbid, and profuse.

The inflammatory process is seldom limited to the endometrium. It involves, as a rule, the tubal mucous membrane, the uterine parenchyma, and the perimetrium.

DIAGNOSIS.--The symptoms resemble closely in kind, but differ in degree from, the appearances in acute metritis. The uterus is smaller and not so painful on pressure. The endometrium is sensitive to the slightest touch--a fact elicited upon the passage of the sound. The characteristic symptom is the discharge from the uterine cavity of a more or less profuse secretion possessing the character already mentioned. An absolute differential diagnosis is impossible, nor is it necessary, seeing that the treatment of the two conditions is nearly identical.

PROGNOSIS.--Acute endometritis terminates in resolution or chronic inflammation. The latter mode of termination is of more frequent occurrence, particularly in the presence of gonorrhoea, sepsis, and the like as etiological factors. The disease endangers life when the peritoneum is involved by the propagation of the inflammatory process along the tubes or through the uterine parenchyma. Then the acute endometritis may be the starting-point of general septic infection through the media of the veins and lymphatic vessels.

TREATMENT.--Absolute rest in bed, the relief of pain by morphine, the evacuation of the bowels by enemata or mild laxatives, the free imbibition of bland mucilaginous fluids for the vesical tenesmus,--are measures which usually fulfil all indications for treatment. Even in the case of gonorrhoeal infections astringent applications to the endometrium are contraindicated. Usually, various complications mark the endometritis, the starting-point of the pathological condition, and these complications demand more active interference.

{462} Chronic Endometritis.

ETIOLOGY.--Attention has been called to the etiology of chronic metritis in a somewhat detailed manner. The limits of this paper will not admit of adequate mention even of the more common causative factors of chronic endometritis. All the conditions which determine an active fluxion or passive hyperæmia of the uterus may operate as causative factors. Hypersecretion of mucus is frequently observed in chlorotic, scrofulous, and tuberculous females. Syphilis and gonorrhoea are potential causative agents. Climate seems to exercise a more or less direct influence. Thus, we are informed by Schroeder[41] that chronic endometritis is observed with relative frequency in damp, cool regions, such as Holland, Belgium, and certain parts of England. Europeans who reside in hot climates--for example, the Englishwomen living in India--are said to be affected with leucorrhoea to a degree entirely out of proportion to local or constitutional causes.

[Footnote 41: _Handbuch der Krankheiten der Weiblichen Geschlechtsorgane_, 1881, p. 111.]

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY.--An analogy of striking character exists between the structural changes in chronic endometritis and chronic metritis. In chronic endometritis, as in chronic metritis, it is possible to clearly distinguish two stages in the inflammatory process. In the first, or stage of infiltration, a more or less acute inflammation is observed, which involves, primarily, the interglandular connective tissue; secondarily, the glands themselves. When the stage of infiltration does not terminate in resolution with the resorption of the exudate, the newly-formed connective-tissue elements contract, and the glands are to a greater or less degree obliterated.

1. Chronic Catarrhal Endometritis.--The endometrium during the first stage is swollen, vascular, soft, and succulent. Small extravasations of blood and pigmentary deposits from ecchymoses are observed in the interacinous connective tissue. The surface of the mucous membrane is smooth or roughened in spots. The orifices of the glands are visible. The mucous membrane of the cervix is infected, its transverse folds distended, the follicles filled with mucus, the canal plugged with tenacious turbid secretion; the vaginal portion is enlarged, spongy, and its mucous membrane exhibits hypertrophic changes in the papillary body. The os externum is frequently patulous. The uterine walls having undergone excentric hypertrophy, the cavity is usually enlarged, and contains a translucent alkaline secretion which resembles mucus.

Microscopical examination of the endometrium reveals a variety of structural changes. A luxuriant development of embryonal connective-tissue elements is observed with relative frequency in the interacinous connective tissue. Olshausen has applied the term chronic hyperplastic endometritis to this condition. The term chronic interstitial endometritis has been more generally accepted. While the newly-formed connective-tissue elements are soft and succulent, hemorrhages are frequent.

Changes in the glandular structures may become more prominent features than alterations in the connective tissue. The laminæ of the glands and the cells of the acini increase in size. The glands branch, frequently resulting in the production of a dendritic network. Schroeder and Carl Ruge have termed this glandular endometritis diffuse adenoma.

{463} The thickness of the mucous membrane may increase in spots from three or four millimeters to fourteen or fifteen millimeters, and there is produced a form of chronic endometritis which is known as fungoid or polypoid.

Under the name endometritis villosa Slavianski described in 1874 a condition of the uterine mucous membrane which consists in a papillary growth of the endometrium with myxomatous degeneration of the vessel tunics.

During the stage of induration the ciliated epithelium, destroyed and cast off during the stage of infiltration, is replaced by cells which resemble squamous epithelium. The utricular glands, with dilated cavities, are flattened out, entirely obliterated, or present the appearance of shallow crypts. The secretion is gradually diminished, until finally the endometrium is converted into a layer of connective tissue.

Under the names erosion, ulceration, granulation, and the like a variety of pathological conditions, entirely distinct from, sometimes in connection with, cervical laceration and ectropium, are included. The flattened epithelium covering the vaginal portion may be cast off, and replaced by the dark-red subjacent cylindrical epithelium, giving origin to the condition known as simple erosion. Occasionally, glandular canals, formed out of these cylindrical cells, and penetrating the mucous membrane in every direction, present the appearances of papillary erosion; and the condition has accordingly been termed by Carl Ruge papillary ulcer. Cervical secretions may stagnate in these glandular tubes, retention-cysts appear, and the condition technically termed follicular erosion results. In all forms of cervical erosion or laceration the secretions are increased in amount and altered in physical and chemical characters during the stage of infiltration. In a later stage of the disease the hyperplasia and subsequent contraction of the connective-tissue elements may result in the total obliteration of all traces of glandular structure. There is a certain amount of probable evidence in favor of the view that these changes in the cylindrical cells normally situated beneath the squamous epithelium covering the vaginal portion may terminate in malignant disease. These erosions, in the present state of our knowledge, must be viewed as symptomatic of chronic endocervicitis.

2. Dysmenorrhoea Membranacea.--The exfoliation and casting off of large pieces, or even of the superficial layers, of the entire endometrium during menstruation has been observed from the days of Morgagni up to the present time. Peter Frank pointed out the resemblance between this exfoliation and the membrana caduca. Simpson, recognizing the sieve-like perforations caused by the utricular glands, termed the condition exfoliation of the hypertrophic mucous membrane. Virchow erroneously termed the membrane decidua menstrualis. Olshausen, Wyder, and v. Recklinghausen (1877) have demonstrated the truth of Simpson's view, and have shown that the condition must be regarded as a symptom of a series of endometritic inflammatory processes. In all cases in which a decidual membrane is cast off the diagnosis of abortion must be made, whether the pregnancy be intra-uterine or extra-uterine.

Wyger has reported a case in which syphilis was regarded as an etiological factor. This observation has not been confirmed.

3. Chronic Croupous Inflammation of the Endometrium is sometimes observed in connection with carcinoma of the corpus. It may follow {464} gangrenous vaginitis in diphtheria and the acute infectious diseases. The interacinous connective tissue is infiltrated with fibrinous materials, and extravasations of blood are everywhere visible. The superficial layers of the mucous membrane become gangrenous, are cast off, and occasionally the entire intra-uterine expanse is converted into a wound surface.

DIAGNOSIS.--The symptoms of chronic endometritis and endocervicitis are usually masked by the appearance of the accompanying chronic metritis. Intrapelvic pains, disturbance of the menstrual function, extra-menstrual hemorrhages, the presence of a more or less profuse leucorrhoea, are signs which urgently indicate bimanual palpation.

The catarrhal secretion from the utricular glands may be imprisoned within the uterine cavity by a functional or organic stricture of the internal os, resulting in periodic discharges of a thin, translucent alkaline fluid, readily distinguishable from the thick, tenacious cervical mucus. In certain cases, particularly in old women, the blenorrhoeal secretion may be permanently retained within the uterine cavity, constituting the condition hydrometra.

The introduction of a small sharp spoon within the cavity of the uterus will enable the observer to remove sufficient tissue for microscopical examination without entailing the slightest injury on the patient. A positive diagnosis can be made in this way, and a rational therapy instituted.

Digital and specular examinations disclose the condition of the vaginal portion of the cervix. The amount and physical characters of the cervical secretions are items of important diagnostic moment. In suspicious cases of cervical erosion a small bit of tissue may be cut away from the surface and subjected to microscopical examination.

Secondary disturbances in connection with the gastro-intestinal canal and nervous system occur in chronic inflammations of the endometrium, as in the case of chronic uterine infarct.

PROGNOSIS.--Chronic inflammations of the corporeal and cervical mucous membrane seldom threaten life directly. The continuous loss of blood and serum, however, may produce a condition of profound anæmia and render the individual more susceptible to intercurrent disease.

Then the hyperplastic condition of the endometrium is always an occasion for anxiety. The relation between polypoid and fungoid growths of the corporeal mucous membrane, erosions of the vaginal portion of the cervix, and malignant new formations is not settled. The possibility of malignant residua, however, must be admitted.

Sterility, acute and chronic decidual inflammations, adherent placenta, disturbances in the involution of the puerperal uterus, and the like--direct results of chronic endometritic inflammation--are conditions which confer an unfavorable element upon the prognosis.

Finally, while it is possible to effect a material amelioration of all the symptoms by a judicious general and local treatment, a complete restitutio ad integrum is seldom or never achieved. Recidiva are always liable to occur.

TREATMENT.--Prophylaxis.--The remarks made with reference to the prevention of chronic uterine infarct apply with equal force to the prophylaxis of chronic corporeal and cervical endometritis.

{465} Curative.--Of chief importance, in the very large majority of cases, is the subject of general treatment. Many cases of chronic catarrhal endometritis are improved by the regulation of the functions of the gastro-intestinal canal, skin, kidneys, and hæmatopoietic viscera in the absence of all local treatment. This statement holds true with particular force when scrofulosis, tuberculosis, syphilis, and the like are chief etiological factors.

Local Treatment.--The methods of local treatment at the present time are infinitely various. For convenience of description they may be collected under three headings:[42]

I. The washing out of the uterine cavity;
II. The cauterization of the uterine cavity;
III. The curettement of the uterine mucous membrane.

[Footnote 42: H. Fritsch, _op. cit._, 1885, p. 419.]

To Schultze, in particular, are we indebted for methods of washing out the cavity of the uterus. The cervical canal is dilated by means of the finger, tents, or metallic instruments, and the mucous membrane lining the cavity of the uterus is cleansed with dilute solutions of carbolic acid, boric acid, bichloride of mercury, and other solvent and antiseptic fluids.

Cauterization is usually effected at the present time by the application of pure tincture of iodine, iodine with glycerin, or carbolic acid, to the endometrium. Bandl's canulæ for the washing out of the uterine cavity with solutions of alum and cupric sulphate are valuable instruments in this connection. The application of the solid stick of nitrate of silver and intra-uterine injections of liquor ferri are gradually passing into disuse.

The curettement of the diseased endometrium has been rapidly gaining ground within recent years, and now constitutes the most reliable method of treatment in obstinate cases in which local interference is indicated at all. Martin, Düvelius, and other clinicians have abundantly established the fact that, after the mechanical removal of the old diseased mucous membrane, a new endometrium of relatively normal functional activity is formed.

The number of operative procedures for the relief of chronic endocervicitis is enormous. In the majority of cases occurring among multiparæ it will be found that the condition is aggravated, if not caused, by cervical laceration with ectropium. Under these circumstances, and under the indications and conditions insisted upon by the author of the procedure, Emmet's operation will alleviate, if it does not cure, the pathological state of the mucous membrane.

{466}

{467}

ABORTION.

BY GEORGE J. ENGELMANN, M.D.

DEFINITION.--Abortion, the mishap of popular parlance, the fausse couche of the French, is the premature interruption of intra-uterine pregnancy, the expulsion of the non-viable ovum, whether the result of natural causes or criminal interference.

SYNONYMS.--Common as the accident unfortunately is, the nomenclature, both popular and scientific, is somewhat indistinct, the terms abortion and miscarriage being used in a variety of ways, so that the physician is liable to be misunderstood by his professional brethren and in danger of causing serious offence to his patients. A strict definition of the terms is hence of importance, and in order not to add to the confusion we can do no better than adopt the one now adhered to by the authorities of the day. Abortion and miscarriage are strictly synonymous, notwithstanding the popular belief that the term abortion is restricted to the criminal interruption of pregnancy, whilst miscarriage is supposed to designate the accident resulting from natural causes. Again, some make a difference in time between abortion and miscarriage--abortion being the expulsion of the ovum in the first four months of pregnancy; miscarriage, or the partus immaturus, in the next three months, from the fourth to the seventh; and the partus prematurus from the seventh to the ninth month.

CLASSIFICATION.--We might, indeed, in regard to importance, cause, and course of expulsion, designate four different periods of gestation--the first two during the continuance of the chorion frondosum, and the last two during the period of placental development: the first during the first two months of pregnancy, before sufficient adhesions have formed; the second, still during the period of the chorion frondosum, until it begins to disappear, from the second to the fourth month; the third, in the early stages of placental development, before the term of foetal viability, from the fourth to the seventh month; and the fourth, which is everywhere recognized as the partus prematurus--premature delivery--from the seventh to the ninth month, when the placenta is fully developed with firm adhesions and the child viable.

For practical reasons and simplicity's sake we will distinguish only between abortion and premature labor--miscarriage, abortion, abortus, being the expulsion of a non-viable foetus, of the ovum before the time of complete placental development, in the first seven months of pregnancy; and premature labor, the interruption of pregnancy in the last two months, from the seventh to the ninth, when the foetus is viable and {468} formation and attachment of the placenta has been completed. These two classes naturally blend, but are strikingly different in cause, symptoms, and treatment if we consider the type about which they are grouped--abortion proper as most frequent in the third and fourth month, and premature labor in the seventh and eighth. It is abortion or miscarriage of which we shall treat in this article, more especially its characteristic form before the formation of the placenta, whilst we shall touch but lightly upon those forms which approximate premature labor and come within the sphere of the obstetrician; that is, abortion in the sixth or seventh month, when the placenta is more fully developed.

FREQUENCY.--With regard to the frequency with which this accident occurs, we can but form an estimate, as there are but few of the pathological conditions to which the human constitution is subject in regard to which we are more at fault as to statistics: neither the case-book of the physician nor the hospital or post-mortem record permits of more than an indefinite approximation as to the frequency of its occurrence. During the first six or eight weeks of gestation, certainly the first four, the patient herself is often ignorant of her condition, and the ovum passes off amid a more profuse menstruation, with only the symptoms of simple menorrhagia; the same may be true at later periods by reason of coexisting conditions. Some knowingly conceal the fact; many, knowing it, call no assistance; others have midwives, the physician seeing only the more threatening cases; and but few enter the hospital, where our most reliable statistics are gathered.

All points considered, it has been stated that to every 5.5 labors at term we will find 1 case of premature expulsion of the ovum (Busch and Moser). Whitehead asserts that 90 per cent. of married women abort, or that 37 out of 100, somewhat over one-third, of all mothers abort at least once before their thirtieth year. Hegar estimates 1 abortion in the early months to 8 or 10 labors at term, which harmonizes very well with the figures given by Busch and Moser. Multigravidæ abort more often than primigravidæ, although there are certain causes peculiar to primigravidæ which tend to abortion, such as the indiscretions of early married life: uterine disease, perimetritis, and endometritis, on the other hand, are more common in multigravidæ, and, again, the number of multigravidæ is by far greater than that of primigravidæ.

These estimates are all somewhat general, but even if exact statistics could be gathered as to any one locality, they would not hold good in others--true of one region, they would not be so of another. Climate, habits of life, and morals of the community very greatly affect the completion and interruption of pregnancy.

IMPORTANCE.--Frequent as the occurrence of abortion is--common almost as childbirth--its importance is universally underrated. Many of the ills to which women are subject result directly or indirectly from this accident, or, we may justly say, from an undervaluation of its importance. If not criminal or traumatic, it is the result of pathological changes either in the maternal system, in the sexual organs, or in the ovum itself; labor is brought about amid these conditions at a time when neither ovum nor uterus is properly prepared, as in labor at term, and under these conditions, especially in a diseased system or diseased uterus, involution will not so readily take place. Morbid conditions of {469} the sexual organs follow, and affect the health of the patient more or less, though death but rarely results, either directly or indirectly. These evils are more commonly the consequence of mismanaged abortion and neglected after-treatment than of the accident itself; hence the result depends rather upon a thorough appreciation of the importance of this condition by both patient and physician, especially the general practitioner, the family physician; if assistance is sought, it is he who is called, and not the specialist--not the gynecologist or the obstetrician. It is the physician conversant with the family secrets whose aid is sought in this matter, which is considered by the mother rather as a delicate and disagreeable than an important affair.

Women should be given to understand more thoroughly the serious results which so often follow neglected abortion or abortions which, for the very reason of their being rapid and favorable in their course, are neglected as to after-treatment. Women must be impressed with the necessity of proper attention during the progress of miscarriage from its very initiation, and the even greater care that is necessary after the ovum is expelled and all is supposed to be over, and involution of the uterus at this period must be guided and guarded as after expulsion at term.

Much suffering would be avoided if women were taught to consider abortion as a disease, a pathological condition, demanding immediate and active attention, and not simply as a disagreeable and disgraceful accident, to be concealed if possible. The patient would then no longer endeavor to worry through without assistance or call in nurse or midwife; and, thoroughly knowing the possible dangers, they would be more cautious, and the frequency of criminal abortions would also decrease: these, above all, cause injury to health, because medical attendance is avoided if at all possible, and care likewise, as the patient is anxious to conceal her indisposition. Then also the practitioner must bear in mind the great importance of this accident, both that he may anticipate and prevent it, and if inaugurated he may guide it to a rapid and successful termination and guard his patient throughout the period of involution. Great temporary pain, and often lifelong suffering, will thus be prevented.

A thorough knowledge of abortion, of its causes, course, and treatment, is equally necessary to the physician, that he may guard his own honor and that of the profession: an abortion, due to uterine disease or malnutrition of the ovum, occurring during some period of medical attendance is often blamed upon the physician by those anxious for offspring, whilst, on the other hand, that large and shrewd class who are seeking to avoid childbirth not infrequently resort to the trick of urging certain methods of treatment during early pregnancy, with the hope that the physician himself may thus induce abortion, or he is called, with all appearance of innocence, by the criminal who has interrupted gestation to complete the abortion once commenced. His own reputation and that of his profession is then at stake: to guard this and to preserve the health of the mother entrusted to his care he must be conversant with the pathological conditions involved and the importance which attaches to them.

Woman requires skilled aid in labor, the physiological termination of pregnancy; more necessary still is this in the premature pathological interruption of this condition, in abortion! The attendant is often {470} responsible for two lives, as in labor, although under the conditions usually existing medical aid is not summoned until the life of the embryo is already destroyed--a most urgent argument in favor of timely medical advice and of close attention to prevention, a proper management of the pregnant state, and the treatment of threatening abortion, as at this time both lives may still be saved. This accident, so frequent in its occurrence, so disastrous to the health of woman, is important in all its phases, not only in the stage of expulsion and retention, to which attention has been directed on account of the surgical interest, but as well in its incipience, the time of prevention, and its after-treatment; abortion demands, and is worthy of, the most careful study and the best efforts of the physician.

HISTORY.--The history of abortion, it has often been stated, is the history of civilization, but I would rather say that it is the history of races--of their rise and fall. Abortion in consequence of natural causes, as well as criminal, is now, and has at all times been, practised among savage as well as civilized peoples, and develops with the progress of civilization, with the deterioration and fall of races, civilized and savage, as shown by history ancient and modern.

Abortion consequent upon natural causes is by far less frequent among a vigorous and healthy people still struggling for supremacy, full of youth and strength, than among nations who have reached the height of power, who have been enfeebled by indolence and the luxuries of civilization, by vice and fashion. Of criminal abortion this is naturally true to a far greater extent, yet this is common and customary among many primitive, semi-civilized peoples. As nations advance they become debilitated and demoralized amid the brilliancy and luxuriousness of their surroundings, and they rapidly retrograde toward the very worst vices of primitive humanity: they are thus undermined, and succumb to the attacks of their more vigorous neighbors, and magnificent empires are overthrown and extinguished by the youthful vigor of a hardy, simple people. The more civilization progresses, the greater the apparent abhorrence of the crime of abortion, the more numerous the laws enacted to guard against it, the more frequent does the crime become; and, strange though it may seem, it is nowhere punished. Abortionists everywhere are known; in the larger cities of this continent as well as Europe they achieve a widespread fame, are well known, and yet rarely if ever convicted. It is a notorious fact in our community that these worst of criminals almost invariably escape, and even in the states of Germany, where the laws are strict and rigidly enforced, where the crime of abortion is punished by imprisonment of from five to twenty years, that eminent teacher of medical jurisprudence, J. L. Casper, says that "Of all the many accused, never a one was condemned, and in no one case was the crime proven." They are sheltered by the words of the law and the sympathy of the community, which, notwithstanding the abhorrence expressed, still accompanies these criminals, though not to so great an extent as it does those equally forlorn women who are guilty of killing the child when born; for, as Hodge truly says, "There is no class of criminals who meet with so much sympathy as women guilty of foeticide." Greece and Rome when at the height of their power favored by their laws, and almost openly advocated, abortion, whilst among the ancient Germans it was {471} one of the crimes most deeply despised and most severely punished--just as it was condemned by the laws of the Goths. How different is it now among the races sprung from these proud conquerors of Rome, now that they have reached the very acme of their career! The more civilized, the more powerful they become, the more does this crime develop, as in Germany and France, where it is practised upon a most extensive scale, and yet, as we have seen, the criminals escape, notwithstanding the most rigorous laws. Condemned from the bench and the pulpit, the crime still progresses. There is the poor girl who has yielded her honor for the sake of bread for herself or those dependent upon her; there is the lady of fashion, by far more culpable, who cannot give up the time she owes to society to the cares of maternity; or the society belle, who would resort to any and every measure that she may escape maternity for the sake of retaining her beauty and the freshness of her charms, a slender waist and a well-shaped breast; others resort to it that their round of pleasure may not be disturbed. Many an unborn child is executed upon the plea of limited resources, that the family cannot continue to live in their accustomed luxury if an additional member should appear.

Neither the laws of God nor man will affect the hearts of women thus brutalized: it is the physician alone who can interfere; it is to him they come most often; it is he, the trusted family friend, who will do more than judge or priest to change this unfortunate condition of affairs. In crowded countries abortion is looked upon as a necessity of nations, just as it is here considered a necessity in a family too numerous; hence in China, Japan, and Hindostan it is common; in Arabia and in New Caledonia it is produced on account of the scarcity of nourishment and the difficulty of raising children. Among some crude people it is not the wish of the individual, but the law of the land, which determines the course of gestation; so upon the island of Formosa a woman is not allowed to bear a child before her thirty-sixth year, and priestesses fulfil a social law by kicking the belly of the woman who becomes pregnant before the proper age, lest the population grow too large for the resources of the island. So it is among other islanders also--upon the Sandwich Islands, the South Sea Islands, whose population was reduced from two hundred thousand to seven or eight thousand in the course of thirty years. Upon Tahiti and King's Mills Islands it is equally common. Upon the latter a more generous feeling prevails, and the woman is at least allowed to have a family of three, but not beyond that; and upon the Feejee Islands one of every two conceptions is supposed to be destroyed before the period of gestation is completed.[1] So also among the New Zealanders, the Hottentots, and the inhabitants of Madagascar. By the Icelanders this crime is committed as an heirloom left by their Norwegian ancestors.

[Footnote 1: Trader, _Criminal Abortion_.]

Not alone upon the islands, but among the inhabitants of states not overcrowded like China and Japan, abortion is legalized; so in Paraguay and La Plata, where it is caused in every family after the birth of two living children. Some of the African negroes produce abortion on account of limitation of resources; among the Buddhists, otherwise so humane in their laws, it is frequent--a wonderful disharmony between {472} the conduct of individuals and the dictates of their political and religious laws.

Wherever celibacy is demanded crime and abortion result, as among the Buddhists, whose laws condemn large numbers of vigorous subjects to this existence; and in our own civilization we see the same inevitable result in many of the most closely-populated Catholic countries. Thus abortion is frequent among the Anamites and among the Kambysians, who marry late and are frequently obliged to produce abortion before the time of marriage. Among the Brahmans it is a common practice, induced by religious and political arrangements, the direct result of a law which encourages sexual excesses, and frequently of the restrictions placed upon the needs of woman (widows are condemned by law to eternal celibacy); yet this terrible crime is looked upon as most harmless by the people of India, the destruction of a child that has not seen day being, according to their view, less of an evil than the dishonor of a woman. In Turkey it is so common that a certain price is paid for abortion and another for infanticide, and the law is indulgent to the crime, as it can be paid for cheaply. The cost of removing a non-viable foetus, or even an embryo, is equivalent to a tenth of the price paid for the murder of an infant.

The methods by which expulsion is accomplished are everywhere the same among people civilized and savage, ancient and modern--local and general. Among the local measures external violence is the most simple, as among the Tasmanians, who practise abortion by striking the belly, just as it is done by the priestesses of Formosa; and this is quite common in our day and in our communities. The introduction of instruments and implements into the womb is more intricate, but likewise common; the knitting-needle is a favorite resort in our country, and among primitive peoples a similar practice is resorted to; thus some of the negroes of Africa introduce the sprouting stem of a plant into the uterine cavity. Venesection, the drawing of blood from the vulva, anus, and foot, was often resorted to for the purpose of producing abortion.

Among the more common remedies used in former times are emetics, which are still very often resorted to, cantharides, emmenagogues, sabin, snakeroot, and the famous pennyroyal; so also ergot; the compound cathartic pill of the United States Pharmacopoeia is a favorite remedy,--all of which maim or kill the patient as often as they produce abortion. In New Caledonia a decoction of red-bud and banana-peel or green fruit is taken boiling: in China aperient medicines are publicly advertised for sale, and aphrodisiacs under the name of remedies to free the stomach and give back virginity. Certain negro tribes bring on abortion by manipulation of the abdomen and the use of purgative substances, such as the bark of the koche and sonnaly, which are also used to facilitate labor. Pen-tsae enumerates a large number of remedies as accelerators of abortion or purgatives according to the dose; many of them have a very doubtful action, however. The natives of India most commonly use the black annin, vulgarly called black anise or fourspice; fifteen grammes is an emmenagogue and larger doses produce abortion. The Arab women seek to produce sterility and escape the annoyance of numerous pregnancies, and imagine that they can arrive at that end by drinking a solution of sal soda, a decoction of peach-leaves, and the sap of the male fig tree.

{473} Among peoples savage and civilized, for good reasons and bad, villains sufficient are found to do the bidding of thoughtless and misguided women; the remedies used, internal and external, local and general, are very often so violent as to be followed by the death of the victim. The plea of limited resources, of the inability of supporting a large family, is one common to people of all races in all stages of civilization: permitted by the unwritten law among some, it is practised with equal frequency by others, though strictly condemned. As we have stated, among many of the American nations it is legalized.

Again, there have been people at all times who have scorned the crime, but this is only among those pure, primitive, and still-developing peoples, as, for instance, the ancient Goths and Germans; and the Noxes of South America, as well as some of the negroes of Africa, even permit the husband without hesitation to kill his wife if she should abort. It is among those of the primitive peoples where the blessing of offspring is held in high esteem that the crime of abortion is most condemned and most rare. With the progress of civilization and religion, of refinement and knowledge, this crime, strange as it may seem, rapidly develops. It is not among the low and ignorant--it is among the educated and refined, among the wealthy--that it is most common; and the plea given in excuse of this crime is one most especially urged by the educated and refined, by the devout Christian, that the embryo is not an animated being, not an individual existence--that it does not attain the dignity of a living being until the time of quickening, until the middle of pregnancy. Religious and scientific reasoning is brought to bear in support of this theory in excuse of the many refined criminals; and it is this very point which the physician must urge: that the ovum, the embryo, from the moment of conception is an animated being, an individual existence with a life of its own. Important as the treatment of abortion, in consequence of natural causes, is, its prevention, and, above all, the prevention of criminal abortion, is still more so; and it is this which lies in the hands of the physician, whose most forcible argument must be in the evident and glaring crime which is committed by the destruction of a living being, as is the embryo from the moment of conception, not to forget the injury resulting to the mother. The former appeals to the moral, the latter to the physical, elements of womanly nature.

Whilst abortion, in consequence of natural causes, is a condition more dangerous than labor at term, the interruption of pregnancy by forcible means--criminal abortion--must necessarily be more grave in its consequences. The interference is often a violent one; the aborting woman is in mental distress, unable to seek the necessary comfort or attention; she is oppressed by the crime in her inner conscience; under unfavorable conditions, physical and mental, for the suffering which is most likely to follow.

With the progress in the practice of medical science the art of the abortionist keeps pace, and in civilized communities of to-day one cause of this growing frequency is in the increased numbers and the increased skill of practitioners ready to pander to all the whims of their degenerated customers: but the greater should be the efforts of honorable physicians to dispel the false illusions by which women seem to justify their doings, and to erase this darkest of all thoughts that lurks amid the {474} noblest sentiments in woman's mind. A strong effort was made not long ago by the American Medical Association to urge the importance of this matter upon the profession, resulting from the earnest efforts of that honored obstetrician Hugh L. Hodge, which culminated in a report of the Committee on Criminal Abortion, read before the American Medical Association in 1871, and a number of papers written upon the subject at that time, prominent among which I would mention those of Van de Warker, Tabor Johnson, and John W. Trader. The wave has swept by: what has been accomplished may be gleaned from the police records of our cities.

PHYSIOLOGY OF EARLY PREGNANCY.--For an understanding of the pathological conditions which determine, precede, and accompany this accident a knowledge of the physiological state is as important as normal anatomy is to the pathologist. But as this subject is treated of in full in other articles, we will confine ourselves to a few of the leading features which are most important for purposes of diagnosis and treatment.

The changes, local and general, resulting from the physiological state of pregnancy are extremely variable, often approximating or simulating pathological conditions, so that we must differentiate and discriminate between such as pertain to the normal condition and such as indicate pathological changes and threatening danger. This is necessary, as prevention is, above all, important, it being often possible thus to save two lives with by far less danger and suffering to the mother than is to be expected from the treatment of abortion once inaugurated after the time of possible prevention has passed. Moreover, a correct post-abortum diagnosis is important for the future welfare of the patient, if not from a medico-legal point of view; and this is equally impossible without a knowledge of the physiological condition. This will enable us to determine whether the ovum expelled is healthy or not--whether the causes are traumatic or criminal, or whether the abortion is due to pathological changes; which, again, must guide us in treatment.

Abortion is the expulsion of an ovum the product of a conception, and can only occur during the period of menstrual life, as conception, the impregnation of the female ovule by the male semen, is the consequence of fruitful intercourse, liable to take place at any time during the period of womanhood, the thirty years of female menstrual life from puberty--the appearance of the catamenia--to the time of their cessation. Its occurrence is followed by intense physiological activity of the maternal organism, lasting throughout gestation to the time of its natural termination with the expulsion of the fully-developed ovum at term at the end of the tenth lunar month. This is made evident by striking changes in the entire system, but especially in the sexual organs, which in the earlier period of pregnancy are entirely progressive, developmental, whilst in the later months, toward term, the character is changed to that of a retrograde metamorphosis, preparatory to the separation and expulsion of the ovum and final restitution of the organs. This hyper-activity inaugurated by impregnation becomes evident by marked changes in the system of the mother, in the sexual organs, and in the ovum itself.

Changes in the Maternal System.--These are most peculiar and varied, differing in repeated pregnancies in the same patient, sometimes entirely absent, at others most distressing, even fatal; sometimes appearing at one {475} period, sometimes at another. Healthy, robust women may suffer throughout the entire period of gestation, whilst those at other times ailing are well only in this condition. The most marked of these symptoms are the hystero-neuroses, disturbances of the entire nervous system, central and peripheral; mental depression, more rarely excitement; gastric disturbances, nausea and vomiting; increased activity, renal and pulmonary, consequent upon changes in the circulation; discoloration of the skin upon the forehead, the linea alba, and areola; oedema and varicosities of the veins upon the lower extremities. All these, and many others still more erratic, may accompany the normal physiological condition.

Changes in the Uterus and Pelvic Viscera.--Whilst the ovum develops in the uterus, this organ, its appendages, and the viscera surrounding it, enclosed together within the pelvic cavity, undergo the most marked changes. The early months of pregnancy are those of greatest physiological activity in the uterine muscle, the period of its hypertrophy. This is inaugurated from the very moment of conception, at first increasing, then gradually lessening, until within the last months, when it becomes passive, the rapidly-growing ovum merely distending the hypertrophied uterus, apparently increasing in size, but merely distended by its contents, as a rubber bag would be. In the earlier months the growth of the uterus is entirely due to muscular development--after the fifth month to distension. The individual muscular cells attain enormous growth, and a large number of pre-existing embryonic cells are developed; so also in the interlacing connective tissue. The blood-vessels as well as the lymphatics increase in size and length; the arteries become tortuous; the capillary circulation is to a great extent supplanted by sinuses.

Weighing in its normal condition, when at rest, little above an ounce, the uterus attains within the first four or five months a weight almost fifteen times greater. Remaining the first four months within the pelvic cavity, the increase in size is not of that diagnostic importance which it attains in the later months, when it is to be felt beneath the abdominal walls, though at the end of this period it is distinctly perceived above the symphysis; about the fifth month, between navel and symphysis; and at the sixth month, at the height of the navel. At the end of the third month the uterus is some 4½ to 5 inches in length, by 4 in breadth and 3 in thickness; at the end of the fourth month, 5½ to 6 inches in length, by 5 in breadth and 4 in thickness; at the end of the fifth month, 6 to 7 inches in length, 5½ in breadth, and 5 in thickness; at the end of the sixth month it is some 8 to 9 inches in length.

The changes which take place in the cervix are a merely passive accompaniment of the uterine hypertrophy, it being enlarged more especially by reason of the succulence of its tissues consequent upon the congestion and activity of the body. It is somewhat enlarged in all its dimensions, thickened, and elongated, soft, velvety to the touch, appearing, however, somewhat shortened by reason of the hypertrophy of the vaginal attachment--a condition that approximates rather that of the vagina and external sexual organs than that of the uterus, softened, succulent, somewhat hypertrophied, congested, of a deeper bluish-red wine color, its cavity occluded by thick tenacious mucus, as the secretions of the mucous membrane of the vagina and external sexual organs are also augmented. In the first and second months the uterus is retroverted, the cervix seems to {476} descend as the enlarged organ, by reason of its weight, settles in the pelvis, the fundus sinking down in the hollow of the sacrum, the cervix consequently pointing more forward; as the organ increases in size and rises above the brim in its endeavor to escape the confining space of the pelvic cavity, the enlarged fundus, meeting with the resistance of the promontory, seeks the point of least resistance, and the uterus begins to assume that position of anteversion which continues to become more marked as pregnancy progresses: the cervix points backward into the hollow of the sacrum, and rises gradually (as the fundus increases in size and withdraws from the pelvic cavity).

The Uterine Mucosa.--This structure is as interesting as it is important. The wonderful changes which it undergoes go hand in hand with the various changes and stages of female life: it is the nidus for the reception of the impregnated ovum; it serves to shelter and nourish the delicate ovum, and if diseased, affording insufficient nutrition, leads to the death and expulsion of the embryo. Its shreds when expelled are of diagnostic importance, and in early abortions its massive thick tissues, changed by disease, often cause greater trouble than the ovum itself, forming, alone or with the membranes proper of the ovum, what is so commonly but erroneously called the placenta in abortion. The membrane which lines the cavity proper of the uterus, passing at the internal os into the mucous membrane of the cervical canal, is characterized by the absence of even the slightest trace of submucous or areolar tissue--by its peculiar substratum of connective tissue abounding in cells and tubular glands. It is closely and inseparably attached to the muscular coat. In a state of rest it is a little over 0.04 inch in thickness at the fundus,[2] and the anterior and posterior walls diminishing toward the sides, the cervical and tuber ostea. It is traversed by a series of tubular glands, wavy in their upper part, bifurcated toward their base, running more or less parallel to each other. In this membrane, so important for the preservation and development of the ovum, the physiological activity of the system is inaugurated, and seems to centre during the first week of gestation. With the impregnation of the ovule the uterine mucosa, its earliest shelter, begins to hypertrophy: the rapid development which now takes place is owing to the proliferation of the cells of the stroma and the enlargement of the individual cells of all kinds, including those of the glands themselves, as well as the increase of the succulent homogeneous and cellular substance. The glands throughout their greatest extent are enlarged: the increase in thickness is more especially due to the hypertrophy of the superficial layer, the upper half, in which the stroma appears less compact, growing far above the original gland-openings, circumvallating the enlarged ostea, and thus causing those funnel-shaped depressions which give the membrane its sieve-like, cribriform appearance when seen from above. In the third month of pregnancy the mucous membrane attains its greatest thickness, forming a soft succulent lining to the uterine cavity, by its distension closing the various ostea. It is then as much as 0.236 inch in thickness in the anterior and posterior walls, lessening toward the ostea, and begins to present the characteristic layers which become so distinct in the later months--a dense upper and a very loose lower one, comparable to a lax meshwork. Its growth now ceases, {477} and as the uterine cavity increases in size and the ovum in growth, it is distended to cover the rapidly-expanding surface, and becomes thinner and thinner, the upper dense layer remaining as such, whilst the glandular sinuses of the lower layer of the membrane are stretched transversely until they become mere flat meshes like a network stretched along the surface of the womb.

[Footnote 2: Engelmann _Mucous Membranes of the Uterus_.]

The impregnated ovum, as it rapidly enlarges during the first two or three weeks, becomes imbedded in the thickened succulent decidua; and we may compare this to the sinking of a bullet into soft dough: the soft mass of the dough yields to the weight of the superimposed body, and gradually closes over it, so the tissue of these overlapping folds soon unites, completely surrounding the ovum, the nidus thus formed, in which the ovum settles, being usually in the upper portion of the fundus upon the posterior wall of the right side. We now distinguish in the mucous membrane of the uterus three parts: the decidua vera, the greater part of the membrane lining the cavity of the womb where it is not in contact with the ovum; the decidua serotina, which is that part directly beneath the ovum, between it and the uterine wall, which is in connection with the tufts of the chorion, later in part develops to form the placenta; and the decidua reflexa, that part of the mucosa which overlaps and has overgrown the ovum. This membrane is little known and rarely recognized, though always present. It is of no practical importance; a delicate membrane even at the time when it is the great safeguard of the tender ovum, serving to protect it and hold it within the soft bed formed by the decidua serotina; this function of the reflexa continues until the third month, when the ovum has developed sufficiently to occupy the entire uterine cavity and is everywhere in contact with its walls. The thin tissues of the reflexa become more transparent and delicate as they are distended and compressed between ovum and decidua vera, which now with the muscular wall of the uterus surround the ovum and continue the previous function of the reflexa.

The Development of the Ovum.--Practically, we may distinguish two periods in the development of the ovum: the first, that in which we are here interested, before the development of the placenta, where it is a cyst-like body surrounded by the shaggy chorion, the chorion velosum; and after the development of the placenta, after the fourth or fifth month, when the foetus is more fully developed and the ovum is covered with the smooth chorion, the chorion levæ.

The period scientifically the first, and the most interesting stage of development, during the first three or four weeks, when segmentation takes place and the form is moulded, we shall in no way consider. The ovum may then be cast off, perhaps at a succeeding monthly period, unbeknown to any one, perhaps not even to the unconscious mother: certainly the services of an accoucheur are not called for. In the third or fourth week it is a delicate cyst-like body of the size of a hazel-nut, some half an inch in diameter, surrounded by its translucent chorion, and is crushed in the passages or disappears amid the clots of blood of an apparently profuse menstrual flow. The following periods of development are, however, of practical importance, as they will serve diagnostic purposes, as well as an understanding of the appearance of the ovum and the symptoms accompanying miscarriage.