Morality, Some Views
Charles D. Meigs wrote in 1848,
- "I hope the day is far distant when the spectacle shall be seen in
our hospitals, of troops of women waiting in succession for a public
examination of their genitalia, in the presence of large classes of
medical practitioners and students of medicine... He is but the pander
of vice who parades his thousands of uterine cases before the public
gaze..."
In 1854 Meigs wrote,
- "I confess I am proud to say that in this country generally, certainly
in many parts of it, there are women who prefer to suffer the extremity
of danger and pain rather than waive those scruples of delicacy which
prevent their maladies from being explored."
In the 1870s, Howard Kelly was advised to look at the ceiling while doing
a vaginal examination in order not to embarrass the patient. (Ricci)
Kelly and the D&C
Kelly wrote, "For many years I have also done D and C operations in selected
cases on my office table as part of the routine examination in hemorrhagic
patients. Satisfactory conditions are: A cervix easily accessible, and
a canal easily dilatable, and a patient plucky and not neurotic and able
to bear some pain for a short time." (Kelly)
Hippocrates
The Hippocratic writings contain a section on women's diseases. Although
probably not written by Hippocrates, this work appears to describe dilation
of the cervical os. A series of six wooden dilators of increasing diameter
was introduced to a depth of four fingerbreadths. At night the wooden
dilator was replaced by a hollow lead probe filled with mutton fat. (Forrester)
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