Medical gynecology

Front matter

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Preface To The Third Edition

The demand for a new edition of this work coincides, in point of time, with a more general recognition in every department of medicine of the importance of the internal secretions. We have contended, in previous editions of this work, that in the realm of Gynecology the role of the internal secretions is an important one. In recent works, especially in Germany, and in the admirable work by Cushing on the Pituitary Body, we have the very highest proofs of the close interrelations existing between the genital tract of women and the various internal glands. Therefore much has been added in these pages on the relation of the various glands producing internal secretions to pathologic and normal states in women. No more fitting place for the discussion of these questions can be found than' in a work dealing with Medical Gynecology. The writings of Kermauner, Josef Novak, Cushing, Biedel, and others have been drawn upon to bring these sections dealing with the internal secretions thoroughly up to date. Much in these writings will be found to support and elaborate many of the views and opinions expressed by the author in the former editions of this work. This field is one which is of great interest to all medical men, and it is a pleasure to observe that at last gynecologists too are awakening to a sense of its importance in their particular sphere of endeavor.

S. W. Bandler.

New York City, January, 1914.

Preface To The First Edition

This book has been written as a result of frequent inquiries for a work dealing with the non-operative side of gynecology. It represents, with elaborations, a grouping and rearrangement of my clinical lectures. The various topics have been viewed from the standpoints of the symptoms, the disease, the bimanual and microscopic findings, and the general physical and nervous state.

The knowledge gained by studying the diseases of women from these different points of view gives a more distinct mental picture and furnishes logical coordinated conclusions. The resulting repetition and reiteration emphasize important points and make each section fairly complete in itself, thus diminishing as much as possible the necessity of referring to other sections, except for more complete elucidation.

Operative procedures have been viewed as a last resort in those numerous conditions where medical means can accomplish so much. In no field of medicine is conservative treatment of greater value, but, combined with this, there is needed a knowledge of the relation of normal and pathologic genital functions to the general physical and psychic health of woman. I have endeavored to show the relation which pelvic abnormalities really bear to the physical and mental state of the female, in order that we may deal intelligently with gynecologic diseases and not confine our diagnosis and therapeutic methods to the pelvis.

The life and make-up of woman are such that, aside from the diseases and injuries to which she is liable, physiologic processes, heredity, predisposition, mental perturbation, the emotions, marital relations, etc., have an important bearing, and, therefore, the physician who enters into a study of these factors becomes a far better judge of the meaning of symptoms.

12 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

I have consulted particularly the writings of Kisch (puberty), Joseph (syphilis and gonorrhea), Bumm, Wertheim and Finger (gonorrhea), Oskar Frankl (electricity and hydrotherapy). To the teachings and writings of Winter must be credited much of the advance in matters relating to diagnosis and to carcinoma. I gladly record my especial obligation to him for much that has aided me these past twelve years and, consequently, for much that appears in these pages.

The chapter on Constipation, written by my friend, Dr. Geo. Mannheimer, is in complete harmony with the views expressed in other sections, and the value of its teachings must be self-evident. I am indebted to Prof. H. T. Brooks, of the Post-Graduate Medical School, for valuable opinions and information which were given to me while writing the section on Gonorrhea. Dr. I. Strauss revised the pages on bacteriologic methods. I am indebted to Dr. I. Strauss and to Dr. S. Philip Goodhart for suggestions in the section on Associated Nervous Conditions. Dr. Leopold Jaches, of the department of photography, Cornell Medical School, has been of invaluable aid to me in photographing instruments, apparatus and therapeutic procedures on the patient. Mr. K. K. Bosse has made the drawings and illustrations in his well-known accurate and artistic manner. I wish to express my thanks to the publishers, and particularly to the vice-president, Mr. R. W. Greene, for hearty support and assistance in the many details connected with the publication of this book.