378 DYSTOCIA. 



Indeed, all observers have remarked that slight floodings, especially 

 those occurring in the first stage of pregnancy, when arrested by a 

 well understood mode of treatment, sometimes permit the ovum to 

 continue its evolution, and the foetus to live and grow until its natu- 

 ral term; the blood has been seen to flow even to the extent of ex- 

 citing fears for the woman's life, and yet abortion not to take place 

 (460); I attended a young lady who was seized with a profuse he- 

 morrhage in the third month of her second pregnancy, who lost more 

 than two pounds of blood in the space of thirty-six hours, and not- 

 withstanding did not miscarry; M. Desormeaux mentions another 

 case, where the blood flowed with such force that it was necessary 

 to have recourse to the tampon, and where the pregnancy, neverthe- 

 less, went to its full term. 



876. Uterine hemorrhage is cured in three ways. 



1. The blood that escapes externally sometimes becomes itself 

 the remedy of the evil it constitutes, disengorges the uterus, destroys 

 the molimen, removes the congestion, and permits the equilibrium 

 to establish itself naturally; here, the flow may have been efl^'ected 

 at the expense of the cervix, the vagina, or the inferior portion of the 

 womb, and may not have destroyed the principal adherences of the 

 ovum, which remains uninjured, and thus is but slightly disturbed in 

 regard to its development; or the placenta, although partially detach- 

 ed by the blood that exudes from its external surface, continues to re- 

 sist, the hemorrhage stops, and, as in the other case, the child's life 

 is preserved. 



2. In other cases, the flooding, after if has continued for a longer 

 or shorter time, ceases; the ovum, although detached and more or 

 less altered, is not expelled, and remains in the uterus for a period 

 that is variable. 



3. It most frequently happens that the contractions of the uterus 

 are brought into play, and, in these cases, we can rely only upon 

 abortion, delivery, turning, or the forceps, to save the patient from 

 dangers with which she is threatened. 



Puzos has maintained that, when the flow is once arrested, the 

 parts may contract new adhesions: a case by Noorthywck, that of 

 his own wife, has been supposed to confirm this opinion; but upon 

 careful reflection, numerous doubts soon occur to any impartial and 

 unprejudiced mind as to the value of this fact. 



According to Pasta, whenever the union of the ovum with the 

 womb is destroyed by the flow of blood, it is impossible for it to be 

 re-established, and when abortion, or labor, or at least the death 

 of the foetus do not follow flooding, it is because the hemorrhagic 

 excitement takes place in some part beyond the limits of the placentat 



