Metritis

“ ETIOLOGY.—Attention has been called to the etiology of chronic metritis in a somewhat detailed manner. The limits of this paper will not admit of adequate mention even of the more common causative factors of chronic endometritis. All the conditions which determine an active fluxion or passive hyperæmia of the uterus may operate as causative factors. Hypersecretion of mucus is frequently observed in chlorotic, scrofulous, and tuberculous females. Syphilis and gonorrhoea are potential causative agents. Climate seems to exercise a more or less direct influence. ”

“ Chronic endometritis is a constant accompaniment. The pelvic connective tissue is not commonly involved. The plexus pampiniformes and utero-vaginales frequently undergo varicose dilatation.
SYMPTOMS.—The onset of the disease is so insidious and protracted that it is difficult to determine the exact order of occurrence of the symptoms in point of time. Then the complications are so numerous and important that the symptoms of the chronic metritis are frequently masked. A sensation of weight, fulness, or pressure within the pelvis may direct the patient's attention to her condition. ”

“ As the result of the chronic endometritis, which usually follows parenchymatous inflammation, metrorrhagia is frequently observed. Leucorrhoea, more or less profuse, is a constant symptom. Opinions vary extremely as to the systemic reaction following chronic metritis. General failure of nutrition, functional disturbances of the gastro-intestinal canal, hysteria, headache,27 facial neuralgia (Barnes) , coccygodynia, vaginodynia, skin diseases, alopecia (Hebra) , and a host of other affections, have been ascribed from time to time to the direct influence of chronic uterine infarct. ”

“ I have seen such cases, but mostly the health of the patient is affected; even if more active symptoms, such as hemorrhage and sepsis, do not appear, subinvolution certainly follows. In cases less severe the patient is nervous, restless, suffers from insomnia, uterine colic, and occasional oozing; perhaps there is an offensive discharge,—all symptoms which are not sufficient to cause great anxiety, but we may with certainty expect them to result in serious inflammations of the uterus and surrounding tissues—metritis, thrombosis, cellulitis, [p. 521] endometritis, peritonitis ”

“ In diphtheritic ulcerations, and in endometritis due to decomposing remains of the ovum, the load condition is often complicated by the invasion of the neighboring tissues.
The symptoms of PARAMETRITIS and PERIMETRITIS (Pelvic peritonitis48) .—The symptoms of these two affections, as would be naturally [p. 1006] expected from the proximity of the peritoneum to the pelvic connective tissue, for the most part overlap. It must be very rare for one form to occur entirely independent of the other. ”

“ All that has been said under the head of the treatment of parametritis will apply to the treatment of acute perimetritis. As the symptoms of acute perimetritis are ushered in with greater violence than where the connective tissue is simply involved, so the remedies for the relief of these symptoms must be more vigorously applied. The patient must be placed at absolute rest, and be kept there, for the favorable termination of the disease will be largely dependent on the faithfulness with which this measure is carried out. ”

“ Nature meant him to be a healer; for he brightens up a sick room as he did the Merton station when first I set eyes upon him. Don't imagine from my description that he is in any way soft, however. There is no one on whom one could be less likely to impose. He has a temper which is easily aflame and as easily appeased. A mistake in the dispensing may wake it up and then he bursts into the surgery like a whiff of cast wind, his checks red, his whiskers bristling, and his eyes malignant. ”

“ Her face was ageless, neither young nor old; it came to him that it was free from time forever, free from the etching acid of the years. She might have been born yesterday or a million years agone. Her eyes, set wide apart, were round and luminous; they were living jewels filled with purple fires. Above them rose her forehead, wide and high and sloping sharply back. The nose was long and delicate, the nostrils dilated; the chin small and pointed.
The mouth was small, too, and heart shaped and the lips a scarlet flame. ”

“ I leaped to the side of the Irishman. He lay limp, with a disquieting, abnormal sequacity, as though every bone and muscle were utterly flaccid. The flesh was stone cold; the pulse barely perceptible, long intervaled; the respiration undiscoverable. There were no nervous reflexes or reactions; the pupils of the eyes were enormously dilated; it was as though life had been drawn from every nerve.
"What did this?" I asked.
Lakla shook her head, looking at Rador, the trouble in her eyes deepening. ”

“ Swiftly she slipped from his embrace, blushing, glancing at the Three shyly, half-fearfully. And again I saw the tenderness creep into the inky, flame-shot orbs of the woman being; and a tenderness in the others, too—as though they regarded some well-beloved child
"Doc," shouted Larry, catching me by the hand, "what hit me? Say, I've had some dream. Where are we?"
Lakla touched his arm and proceeded to answer his question.
"You lay in the arms of Death, Larry," she said. "And the Silent Ones drew you from him. Do homage to the Silent Ones, Larry, for they are good and they are mighty!" ”

“ We were soaring at a long angle straight to the top of the barrier; were upon it, and still with that awful speed unchecked were hurtling through the blackness over the shaft of phosphorescence, the ribbon of pale light that I had watched pierce it and knew now was but another span of the cubes that but a little before had fled past us. Beneath the span, on each side of it, I sensed illimitable void.
We were over; rushing along in darkness. There began a mighty tumult, a vast crashing and roaring. The clangor waxed, beat about us with tremendous strokes of sound. ”

“ This leaves him free to imagine a philosophic explanation of the myth based on the word Metis.**** We may agree with Müller that the "swallow-myth" is extremely archaic in character, as it is so common among the backward races. As to the precise amount, however, of philosophic reflection and allegory which was present to the cosmogonic poet's mind when he used Metis as the name of the being who could become a fly, and so be swallowed by her husband, it is impossible to speak with confidence. ”

“ And, save for what he handled, he thought with grim humor, this was a commonplace thing enough surely to satisfy her. She accepted his aid without comment, looked at him no more. And after a while the fever in his blood cooled, his hot revolt crystallized into cold determination. For the moment he would accept the situation. He would let matters develop. His time would come. He could afford to wait.
Without a word when the last shining cup was in the pannier and the mouth of the latter closed he turned and strode to the tent to get together his duffle, pack his burro. ”

“ Willing cut short any more of this sort of medical lingo by asking to be told in plain terms if the man would ever walk again.
“Probably not,” said Dr. Merritt, “though he will reach the wheel-chair stage and perhaps even crutches. Still, you never can be sure.... But he is not a robust man, you know. I told you about his obstinate dyspepsia. I never saw a worse case.”
Mr. Willing’s healthy satisfied face expressed the silent disgust of a strong, successful man for a weak and unsuccessful one. “What in hell are they going to do?” ”

“ About the cratered girdle of the upthrust shields a glimmering mistiness was gathering; a translucent mist, beryl pale and beryl clear. In a heart-beat it had thickened into a vast and vaporous ring through whose swarms of corpuscles the sun's reflected image upon each disk shone clear—as though seen through clouds of transparent atoms of aquamarine. ”

“ Merritt’s office. If only there was something the doctor could do to help him. But he’d tried everything. And anyhow, he understood perfectly that a man who doesn’t make money has no right to complain of dyspepsia—of anything. Illness only adds to his guilt.
He put a soda-mint in his mouth, turned a corner and saw, down the street, the four-story brick front of Willing’s Emporium. Was it possible that a human being could hate anything as he hated that sight and not drop dead of it? ”

“ HOW TO USE THE MENTIMETER TESTS The Mentimeter tests differ from the Alpha tests, or from the Beta test of the United States Army, from the Otis test, or from any other system of tests now available, chiefly in their flexibility. Rather than present to the public a certain fixed and invariable group of eight or ten tests which are to be used wherever a measure of general intelligence is to be employed, as has been done in other cases, the present authors have chosen to present a wide variety of tests from which each reader may select those for his use which actually give the best results. ”

“ The surveyor, for example, who measures the area of a field makes very little impression upon the soil over which he passes. A physician who measures the weight of an infant does not thereby increase that weight or diminish it. In the same way the psychologist who applies a Mentimeter test to a filing clerk, does not by that act increase the efficiency of that clerk. Measurements, of themselves, are of no value. ”

“ The present form of the test is a lengthening of the form used in the Army Alpha series. Twenty-four elements are contained in the Mentimeter form, while only sixteen elements were used in the Army form. Another advantage of the present form over the military edition is the more definite attempt at arrangement of the elements in the test according to their difficulty. Having the series graduated in difficulty, from easy to hard, is a distinct advantage, particularly with young or dull persons, who quickly stop trying unless their first efforts are successful. ”

“ The newspapers contained bulletins of an epidemic of smallpox at Bulcester. How would that work into the plot? Then the high animal spirits and daring fancy of Miss Martin might carry her into undreamed-of adventures.
‘But they won’t let her have even a glass of champagne,’ reflected Merton. ‘One glass makes her reckless.’
It was with a trembling hand that Merton, about ten on the Monday morning, took the telegraphic envelope of Fate.
‘I can’t face it,’ he said to Logan. ‘Read the message to me.’ Merton was unmanned! ”

“ Merritt knelt on his knees, and hollowed his hand and drank the well water. He said (over his port) that night that if all water were like the water of the filbert well the world would turn to teetotalism. It takes a townsman to relish the manifold and exquisite joys of the country.
It was not till he began to venture abroad that Merritt found that something was lacking of the old rich peace that used to dwell in Meirion. ”

“ Müller’s Fluid.—Bichromate of potash 30 grains, sulphate of soda 15 grains, distilled water 31⁄2 ounces. This hardens in from three to six weeks. Then transfer, as before, to methylated spirits, and change it every day until colour ceases to appear. Most suitable for lymphatic glands, eye-ball and its internal structures, as well as for tendons, and thymus gland.
Methylated Spirit may be generally employed, but it has a tendency to shrink some tissues too much; it hardens in about ten days. It is usual to change the spirit daily, for the first three days at least. ”

“ We're going to have a stiff fight, that's sure. What I want to do quick is to find the Golden Girl, Doc. Haven't seen her on the wall lately, have you?" he queried, hopefully fantastic.
"Laugh if you want to," he went on. "But she's our best bet. It's going to be a race between her and the O'Keefe banshee—but I put my money on her. I had a queer experience while I was in that garden, after you'd left." His voice grew solemn. "Did you ever see a leprechaun, Doc?" I shook my head again, as solemnly. "He's a little man in green," said Larry. "Oh, about as high as your knee. ”

“ For this reason, among others, no single test can be expected to yield definite and complete information 41as to any particular individual’s mental capacity or ability, whether gauged by the universal standard or by group comparison. It has, therefore, been necessary to establish, as preliminary to the preparation of the Mentimeter tests, a variety of standards, and to prepare a considerable number of tests under each of these standards, all or most of which must be used in each instance if anything approaching scientific accuracy is to be reflected in the resulting scores. ”

“ The stencil for scoring this test is less convenient than those furnished with the majority of the Mentimeter tests. The reason for this is the very great possibility of new variations appearing, even after long experience in scoring the test. When more than one blank appears in a single sentence the question as to whether or not a certain word is proper for one of the later blanks depends entirely upon what choice was made in the first blank. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII. THE STARS ARE KINDLY TO LE CHEF. Ah! can it be that the swan sings, and soothes through the night the maiden with its song, when the lover is in the toils that jealousy and hate have set!
The party of braves, with the Metis at its head, turned and marched swiftly back over the path taken by Stephens, till they reached a point from which the bank was easily accessible. In a bluff upon the level the savages had tethered their ponies, which were speedily mounted. Then the party set out for "le corps de garde," as the Metis put it, of "le grand chef." ”

“ If there be a fleshy excrescence it may be dissected out with the scalpel used for the operation in pterygium, or that used for polypus; then making a twisted tent of the size of the meatus from a linen rag, we soak it in water, and sprinkling it with levigated chalcitis, or some such powder, [287] we introduce it into the meatus to prevent the flesh from growing again. Should inflammation come on we must soon take it out. If there be a discharge of blood from the meatus we may soak a sponge in cold water, and apply it along with other appropriate remedies. ”