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Gilbertus Anglicus - Medicine of the Thirteenth Century by Henry Ebenezer Handerson
page 47 of 105 (44%)
In the department of the diseases of women chapters are devoted to
amenorrhea, menorrhagia, hysteria (_suffocatio matricis_), prolapse,
ulceration, abscess, cancer, dropsy and "ventosity" of the uterus
(physometra).

In the allied department of obstetrics we find chapters on the signs
of conception, on the urine in pregnant women, on difficult labor,
prolapsus uteri, retention of the placenta, post partum hemorrhage,
afterpains, and the oedema of pregnancy. The causes of difficult
labor, according to Gilbert, are malposition, dropsy, immoderate size
and death of the fetus, debility of the uterus and obstruction of the
maternal passages. Malpositions are to be corrected by the hand of
the midwife (_obstetrix_). Adjuvant measures are hot baths, poultices,
inunctions, fumigations and sternutatories, and the use of certain
herbs.

In the departments of general medicine not as yet entirely
appropriated by specialists it will suffice to mention scrofula,
pleurisy and pneumonia, hemoptysis, empyema, phthisis, cardiac
affections, diseases of the stomach, liver and spleen, diarrhoea and
dysentery, intestinal worms, dropsy, jaundice, cancer, rheumatism and
gout, small-pox, measles, leprosy and hydrophobia, all of which claim
more or less attention.

Peripneumonia and pleurisy are both inflammations of the chest, the
former affecting the lungs, the latter the diaphragm and the pellicle
which lines the ribs. The prominent symptoms of both diseases are
pain in the chest or side, cough and fever and dyspnoea. Accidents or
sequelae are hemoptysis, empyema and phthisis.

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