Case of Procidentia Uteri

In former writings on this subject, especially in the "Edinburgh Medical Journal" for January 1872, I have insisted on the purely mechanical nature of this disease; that it is like a dislocation or a hernia; that, if hypertrophy favours its production, it is by the increase of weight it implies; that, if relaxation or laceration of tissues favour its production, it is by removal or diminution of resistance. I have also insisted on the misleading character of the nomenclature generally used, pointing out that the womb is most unfortunately chosen to give a name to the disease, for the bladder or the vagina more frequently occupies the place of ringleader in the mischief than the womb; that the womb indeed, in the great majority of cases, is a chief agent in restraining or diminishing the mischief, trying to keep back the descending parts, and while refusing to descend frankly, suffering tensile elongation, not hypertrophic elongation. These and many other important points in the pathology of this important disease I need not here further enumerate.