The entire organ may be thus affected, or it may be limited to either
one or the other anatomical divisions of the uterus, namely, the body
or the neck.
Of all the different varieties of chronic inflammation of the womb,
that of the neck or cervix is the most frequently met. This is due
to the fact that in married women and those who have born children
the cervix of the womb is exposed to mechanical injury from coition,
friction against the vaginal walls in walking and from lacerations
during delivery.
The body of the womb is further removed from all these mechanical
agencies to which the cervix is exposed, for the body is within the
abdomen of the female, and for that reason it is less liable to be
injuriously affected by influences that cause inflammatory enlargement.
But notwithstanding all this, it is a common disease.
A great many cases of womb complaint that do not yield to ordinary
treatment are really of this nature, but owing to carelessness or
incompetency are never recognized. The symptoms of this disease, which
are obstinate leucorrhœa, falling of the womb or displacements, are
mistaken and treated for the disease itself. Women who suffer with
this complaint are extremely liable to go on for quite a while feeling
comparatively well and in hopes that they are recovering, when some
extra exertion or exposure to cold brings on a relapse, which lights
up an acute inflammatory process. This passes into the old troublesome
disease and this resumes its chronic form. After a repetition of
the general routine treatment, the patient may again live under the
delusion that she is going to get well only to have her hopes blasted
by a sudden reappearance of the former painful symptoms, that are alike
discouraging to herself and a puzzle to her friends.
The cause of inflammatory enlargement of the uterus is usually
connected with _parturition_ or _abortion_.
There never can be either the one or the other without more or less
_vascular activity_, which is essential to the repair of the womb and
its restoration to its physiological or healthy condition. All the
uterine tissues are at this time in a high state of irritability, and
if there is a natural predisposition to inflammatory diseases, then
the slightest obstacle to an uninterrupted recovery will kindle an
inflammatory action, that will fasten itself on the uterus. In the very
nature of things this results in a deposition of inflammatory material,
with a consequent increase of intermuscular fibrous tissue which
increases the size and weight of the uterus.
What our mothers termed in former days “a bad getting up,” that is,
when women get up from their confinement weakly and with more or less
pain and dragging in the pelvis on walking or the slightest exertion,
is generally owing to the above-described condition. This disease is
now almost as common as ever. I can always trace these cases to a
confinement or an abortion.