THE TECHNIQUE OF THE UTERINE CURETTE AND ITS BY GEORGE E. ABBOTT, M.D., HOTEL DEL CORONADO. MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY, ETC., FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR Mr. President, and Fellows: In past years, as I have met physicians old and young, in post-graduate work, I have known no subject of such general gynecological interest to all, as The Technique of the Uterine Curette and its Companions. The gynecologist must be skilled in its use, in the most dangerous cases of hysterectomy; and the general practitioner must, with equal skill, use the curette in his cases of miscarriage which he must treat alone and at a distance from all medical assistance. It has been said that the general practitioner must never touch a gynecological case. In the city this may be true; but in the country it is all wrong. A poor patient, in a prairie town, should not be left to die; or what is worse, to commence a life of anaemic and neurotic invalidism; when, by a little study and practice, her family physician can remove a retained placental tuft or a fungoid, degenerated endometrium and save his patient. The major and minor gynecologist and general practitioner should know what to do and how to do it; also what not to do; what may be postponed; and what must promptly be done by another who has given his time and study to similar cases. Therefore I present to you these salient points of the Uterine Curette and its Companions, in the hope that the discussion may bring *Read at the Sixteenth Semi-Annual Meeting of the Southern California Medical Society, held in Los Angeles Dec. 4 and 5, 1895. |