Remarks of S.H. Tewksbury, M.D. on the bill for the promotion of medical science : also, an appeal to the members of the legislature in behalf of the Maine Medical Association, in the Senate chamber, Feb. 27, 1855.

  • Tewksbury, S. H. (Samuel Henry), 1819-1880.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks of S.H. Tewksbury, M.D. on the bill for the promotion of medical science : also, an appeal to the members of the legislature in behalf of the Maine Medical Association, in the Senate chamber, Feb. 27, 1855. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    proportion as the surgeon is skilful, so must his knowledge of anatomy be profound. It is not easy to imagine a more pitiable condition than that of one having just met with an injury so severe as to endanger his life, who is unable to procure the necessary surgical aid. A doctor he can obtain,—for there are doctors everywhere,—but if he lacks the necessary skill, (as he may do by no fault of his own,) his presence may be anything but a boon, for he may only aggravate the sufferings of his patient without being able to save his life. How frequently do accidents suddenly occur, which require the prompt performance of important and difficult operations, and that unless such operations are performed immediately and with the utmost skill, life is inevitably lost. In many such cases in the country, there is no time to send for assistance. We ask you to imagine what the feelings of a man must be, who is aware of what he ought to do, but who is conscious that his knowledge is not sufficient to authorize him to attempt to perform it, and who sees his patient die before him, when he knows that he might be saved, and that it would have been in his power to save him, had he been properly educated in practical anatomy. We ask you to conceive what your own sensations would be, were an ignorant surgeon with a criminal rashness, undertake to perform an important ope- ration, — of removing a tumor for instance, which turned out to be an aneurism, — or suppose it were a hernia, and in operating, the avoiding artery was divided, or the intestine itself cut through or wounded. Suppose it were your mother, your wife, your child, you thus saw perish before your eyes, what would you then think of the prejudice, and that mawkish sensibility, which withholds from the sur- geon that information without which the practice of his profession is murder ! Let those who rule and guide the public mind, ponder on this subject, and act for themselves like wise men. Be consistent, when you summon to your aid the hand and intelligence of the surgeon. If he errs through ignorance, and the loss of a limb or life is the con- sequence, what reproaches can be too sharp, or what indig-