Abstract
The investigation has been carried out along
clinical, pathological, and experimental lines; the
material for the first of these consisted in a consecutive
series of fifty-five cases of toxaemia or of
antepartum haemorrhage, observed for the main part in
the Wards of the Royal Maternity Hospital, to the
physicians of which my thanks are due for facilities
afforded. The pathological line of enquiry concerned
itself mainly with the observation of morbid changes
present in the placenta, an attempt being made to
correlate the appearances present with the clinical
findings. Finally a series of animal experiments
was conducted, so that conclusions to which the pre-
.
liminary investigations had led might be modified or
confirmed.
The thesis is presented in two parts; the first
part is devoted to a critical review of the literature
dealing with the more important theories of eclampsia;
in the second, the rtinfarction" theory is considered
in the light of cases observed and experiments performed.