Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/550

 544 C^SAREA (LESAREAN SECTION <!,*:SARKA (now Kawariyeh). I. An ancient city of Judea, on the Mediterranean, 55 in. N. N. W. of Jerusalem. It was founded by Herod the Great, upon the site of a town called Turris Stratonis. He formed its harbor by the construction of a curved mole 200 ft. in length, built of blocks of stone 50 ft. long and 18 wide, which was one of the greatest works of antiquity. The city was built around the harbor, and was adorned with a temple to Augustus Csesar, after whom it was named, with a theatre, circus, and many other splendid edifices. It became the seat of the Roman procurators and of the titular kings of Judea. In this city Peter preached, Paul was imprison- ed, and James was put to death. Eusebius the historian was bishop of Csesarea. The city was taken by the Saracens shortly after the death Ceesarea, Judea. of Mohammed, and recaptured in 1101 by the crusaders, who built a cathedral upon the site of the ancient temple. It is now in ruins. II. An ancient city of the district of Cilicia in Cap- padocia, originally called Mazaca, afterward Eu- sebia, and the residence of the kings of Cappa- docia. It was taken by Tigranes, king of Ar- menia, who carried the people with other Cap- padocians to his new town Tigranocerta, but some of them returned after the Romans took Tigranocerta. When Tiberius made Cappa- docia a Roman province, he changed the name of Mazaca to Csesarea, and made it the capital. In the reign of Valerian it was taken by Sapor, who slew many thousands of the inhabitants. At this time, about A. D. 255, it had a popula- tion of 400,000. In the reign of Justinian the walls were repaired, and when Cappadocia was divided into Prima and Secunda it was the capital of Cappadocia Prima. It was the birth- place of St. Basil the Great, who became bishop of Csesarea A. D. 370. (See KAISA- EIYEH.) CJESABEAN SECTION, the taking of a child from the womb by cutting. Sextns Julius, an ancestor of Julius Caesar, is said to have corne into the world by this operation, and to have received accordingly the name of Csesar (Lat. cadere, to cut), which was afterward re- tained as a family designation by his direct descendants; and the name Csesarean section was subsequently given to the operation itself. The operation was first performed on women who died in childbirth before the child was born, as a means of saving the life of the infant, which would otherwise have been lost, as well as that of the mother. After the publication of the work of Eucharius Roslein, at Worms, in 1513 ("The Rose Garden for Midwives and Pregnant Women "), and the improvements in obstetric science made by Vesalius in Padua, 1543, the Csesarean operation was not only per- formed in all such cases, but was commanded by law, as a means of saving the life of the child. In 1581 Francois Rousset, a surgeon in Paris, published a treatise in which he gave proofs of the possibility of safely performing the Csesarean operation on the living mother, in cases of malformation and impossible natural delivery. He also first gave the present name to this operation, which from that time for- ward has often been performed on the living mother with complete success, though not in- variably. When from any cause the antero- posterior diameter of the superior strait of the pelvis, or the transverse diameter of the lower strait, is not more than inch, the head of the child cannot pass, and there is no possibility of delivery per vias naturales. It then becomes necessary, if the child be living, to resort to the Csesarean operation as the only means of de- livery. Dr. Churchill, one of the highest au- thorities on this question, states " that in cases where the patient cannot be delivered by any other means, and where, consequently, both mother and child would inevitably die, a chance of saving the lives of both is afforded by the Csesarean section." In this operation the walls of the abdomen are carefully opened in front of the uterus, which is also opened, and the child is taken directly from the womb, in lieu of passing through the natural descent. The best period for operating is at the commence- ment of the labor, provided there be no doubt as to its necessity. The strength of the par- turient woman is then unimpaired; she can