MANAGEMENT OF LABOR. 365 



Where the membranes have given way spontaneously very high 

 up above the cervix, and the tumor that had engaged in the vagina 

 does not disappear, and seems to interfere with the progress of the 

 natural phenomena of the labor, we ought most generally to per- 

 forate them as if nature had not yet effected it. Lastly, when the 

 membranous sac does not permit the liquor amnii to escape until 

 long after the dilatation of the orifice, as it is generally found that 

 the rest of the labor proceeds with great celerity, the woman should 

 always from the time the rupture takes place preserve a horizontal 

 posture. 



853. Another cause of protracted labor is the weakness, whether 

 absolute or relative, of the uterine contractions; this is almost always 

 the cause that is kept in view by the authors of oxytocic remedies; 

 nevertheless it is far from being the most common one, and as the 

 means proper to overcome it are most generally hurtful in the other 

 cases, it is easy to explain the discordance met with in the works 

 on the effects of substances employed to accelerate the process of 

 parturition. 



When the inaction of the womb is evident, and depends neither 

 upon general nor local fatigue, when it prevents the labor from pro- 

 ceeding, and the attention and regimen which were spoken of at the 

 commencement of this article have been tried in vain, and especially 

 when, instead of diminishing, it goes on increasing, hour after hour, 

 those substances that seem to exert a special action on the gestative 

 organ should be tried. This is the case in which small injections of 

 senna are indicated; in which stimulants in general are indicated; 

 in which the borate of soda, extolled by the ancients, by Romberg 

 among others, and in our own day by M. Lobstein, might be suc- 

 cessfully administered; but a substance is now known that seems to 

 deserve a preference over all others, and of which I am about to 

 speak in more detail. 



854. The ergoted rye, clavus, secalinus, secale luxurians, calcar, 

 secale mater, (ble farouche, ble noir, ble cornu, ble ivre, ergot, seigle 

 eperone, clou de seigle, seigle de matrice) seems to have been used 

 from time immemorial by the old women, and by some country mid- 

 wives for the purpose of hastening delivery; it was mentioned in the 

 Acta Natur. Curios, for 1688, and the title of ivomb-rye which was 

 adopted by the Germans shows that this idea was not a new one. 

 These traditions of the vulgar at length attracted the attention of the 

 profession, and M. Desgranges published his first researches upon 

 the oxytocic properties of the ergoted rye in the Gazette de Sante 

 for 1777. Since that period numerous observations have been col- 

 lected and made public in the American, English, and French jour- 



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