WHOLE SERIES, VOL. XX. THIRD SERIES, VOL. XII.

GEORGE S. DAVIS,

DETROIT, MICH.

1896.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, by

GEORGE S. DAVIS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Original Communications.

A CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN DOUBT-

FUL POINTS IN THE MANAGE-

MENT OF ABORTION.*

BY CHARLES P. NOBLE, M.D.,
Surgeon-in-Chief, Kensington Hospital for Women, Phila-
delphia.

There are many problems which come up
for solution in the management of cases of
threatened abortion, for the proper determi-
nation of which all of the resources of the
practitioner are requisite. Few cases in clin-
ical medicine make greater demands upon

*Read before the Philadelphia County Medical
Society, Nov. 27, 1895.

86223

his tact, knowledge, experience, and judg-
ment, for their proper treatment, than cases
of threatened abortion. As a contribution to
the study of the subject, I shall offer my own
views concerning four of the problems which
frequently present themselves. 1. When is
abortion inevitable? 2. When is h
complete? 3. After septic abortions, wi
shall irrigation of the uterus be discontinued:
4. After septic abortions, when shall opera-
tion per vaginam or by abdominal section be
done?

When is abortion inevitable? Every prac-
titioner of experience is aware of the delicate
nature of the question as to when abortion is
inevitable. Upon its proper solution depends,
upon the one hand the chances for existence