A dissertation on the natural history and medicinal effects of the secale cornutum, or ergot / by Oliver Prescott, A.M. ; read at the annual meeting [of the Massachusetts Medical Society] June 2, 1813.

  • Prescott, Oliver, 1762-1827.
Date:
[1813?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on the natural history and medicinal effects of the secale cornutum, or ergot / by Oliver Prescott, A.M. ; read at the annual meeting [of the Massachusetts Medical Society] June 2, 1813. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    15/22
    reasonable proportion to the additional pain and suf- fering it produces. It is also too active and pow- erful an agent, to be safely directed by an ignorant or unexperienced accoucheur; and before dismiss- ing the subject, I most cordially join in cautioning those, who have not been in the practice of using it, and witnessing its operations, to be wary how they employ its agency, until the muscular fibre is prop- erly relaxed, and the os uteri considerably dilated. This caution is also more especially necessary, if they are not positively certain that the presentation is natural, as well as that there are no preternatu- ral obstructions, to prevent delivery ; as the violent pain, and almost incessant action, which it frequent- ly induces, in the uterus, precludes the possibility of turning the foetus. Dr. Beekman is said to have succeeded in a case of amenorrhoea, by giving one drachm of the er- got in decoction. In consequence of this recom- mendation, I tried its effects in one case of partial obstruction, by giving it, first in a dose of one drachm; at the next period the same patient took two drachms, but without the desired effect. And from analogy, I should conclude, that it was una- dapted to this complaint. The tendency of its ope- ration is, I conceive, to constringe the uterine fibres, and lessen the caliber of its blood vessels ; for when given to parturient patients, there has been no in- stance, within my knowledge, of undue hemorrhage after delivery, although several, who have taken it,