On the Induction of Premature Labor — Modes of Effecting It

Abstract

On the Induction »f Premature Labor — Modes of Effecting it.—The following communication, received from Dr. H. R. Storer, will form a part of Prof. Simpson’s forthcoming work, and is now for the first time published: A variety of means or plans have been proposed for the artificial induction of premature labor, in those various and important complications which are now so generally recognized by the obstetric profession as demanding, this mode of operative interference. Thus it has been attempted to excite the uterus into parturient action: 1. By external abdominal frictions, so as to irritate its outer surface. 2. By passing currents of electricity or galvanism through its walls. 3. By irritating other, and even distant, parts or surfaces, as the vagina, rectum, or nipple, that are known to possess a marked reflex power over the contractility of the uterus. 4. By the internal exhibition of ergot of rye and other oxvtoxic remedies. 5. By the evacuation of the liquor amnii. 6. By the dilatation of the os uteri. 7. By the separation of the membranes from the cavity of the cervix or body of the uterus by the finger, by instruments or sponges, or by the injection of fluids. The three first of these modes of inducing premature labor are—alone and singly—so very uncertain in their results, and so generally and entirely fail, that few or no accoucheurs place any confidence in them;* and to the fourth the same objection applies, with this addition, that the ergot, even when it has succeeded, has proved too dangerous in its effects upon the child to be used in an operative procedure, instituted, as this usually is, for the very purpose of saving the infant. The fifth mode which we have enumerated above, viz., the evacuation of the liquor amnii, is, of all the methods proposed, both the oldest and assuredly the most sure and fixed in its effects. But, as a common means, and