2 
ERGOT. 
damage is done, which is thought to he a necessity to the 
obstetrician, is powerless; other means must be resorted to. 
Why, then, permit parturient women to be endangered 
in milder cases, and why toy with them in the more severe ? 
Why not ostracize this dangerous drug, and at once resort 
to safe and reliable means—to such as are harmless and 
effective in all cases ? 
It has been my custom, when engaged to attend an ob¬ 
stetric case, to see that the patient is betimes supplied with 
what I supposed, and was taught by teachers and text-books, 
to be the necessary remedies—such as I could not do without 
in case of trouble. In my early practice, ergot, freshly pow¬ 
dered, as fluid extract, or as the aqueous extract for hypo¬ 
dermic injection, was always prominent among these; yet 
this proved to be the remedy I least used ; if I gave it at all, 
it was always given after labor was completed, merely as a 
safeguard against hemorrhage. 
Sad evidences of the popularity of the drug are the traces 
of its use which are everywhere found. When called upon 
to remedy a lacerated cervix or a ruptured perineum, the 
history is often that of a labor hastened by ergot; when 
summoned to deliver, by forceps or version, a child with, 
at best, feebly pulsating heart, from the iron grasp of a 
firmly contracted womb, you need but stop on your way 
at the family drug-store, and you will not fail to find that 
one medicme has been repeatedly called for —the fluid ex- 
tract of ergot! In case of post-partum hemorrhage the most 
precious moments are wasted in awaiting the effect of this 
drug, which fails where most needed. 
Results sadder still are scored to its use: rupture of the 
uterus, one of the most rare and dangerous of all the acci¬ 
dents attending parturition, is its most terrible sequent. 
I myself have seen two such cases, where young, well- 
built women with healthy tissues and roomy pelvis, thus, 
together with the unborn child, fell victims to a dangerous 
practice. 
Both had before borne children with ease; nor did the 
BOTANf 
copyright reserved car 
