COMPLICATED DELIVERY OF PLACENTA. 557 



pelle, M. Duges, &c. as is attributed to it by MM. Trahon and Bau- 

 delocque, Jiin., I would willingly have recourse to it, should an oc- 

 casion present. 



1202. The ergot of rye, employed by MM. Balardini, Biges- 

 chi,. Bordot, Goupil, Villeneuve, &c. is said to put a stop to iner- 

 tia, to compel the womb to contract, and thus overcome the ad- 

 hesions of the after-birth, expel the placenta, and thereby suspend 

 the flooding. According to these practitioners, as the delivery of 

 the placenta has been always found to be prompt, and never accom- 

 panied or followed by hemorrhage in women who have taken the 

 oxytocic powder during labor, we ought to conclude that it must be 

 of great service in cases of preternatural adhesions of the placenta, 

 and flooding coming on after the birth of the child. 



I would willingly exhibit the article in cases of adhesion, but 

 having had no opportunities of meeting with them, I am not in pos- 

 session of any facts of my own in relation to it. As to hemorrhage, 

 some physicians have thought that they have seen it produced by 

 the obstetrical powder; a young woman was seized with a violent 

 flooding after the birth of the child, although I had administered to 

 her a dose consisting of forty-five grains of ergot, during the labor, 

 and notwithstanding it had produced all the efi'ect I had anticipated. 

 I have also observed a very similar case quite recently, and am led 

 to believe that although the eigot may be useful where the flooding 

 is produced by inertia of the womb, it might very well be injurious 

 in the other cases, which are far more numerous than is generally 

 supposed. 



1203. Another resource, which was first put in practice by Dr. 

 Mojon, then by MM. Hoff'mann, Taroni, Lemaistre, &c., consists in 

 injecting a coJd styptic fluid into the placenta, through the umbilical 

 vein. M. Mojon insists that previously to throwing in the injection, 

 we should draw the blood out of the vein and its branches by ex- 

 hausting with the syringe; but MM. Hoff'mann and Taroni have suc- 

 ceeded without using this precaution; the first made use of the oxy- 

 crate; the second employed brandy and water; and the last named 

 practitioner was satisfied with injecting cold water alone. In all three 

 of the cases, the womb, which had previously been soft and inert, 

 contracted immediately; the placenta was expelled, and the hemor- 

 rhage was arrested; but nothing, not eveji the fact recently related by 

 M. Sandras, proves that the placenta was still adherent, and that more 

 skilful tractions exerted upon the cord might not have produced the 

 same efi'ect; a case related a few days ago in a public journal would 

 even prove, were the journal and the author worthy of credence, that 

 these injections may be wholly ineflScacious. 



