Introductory for 1844-5 : on the present position of some of the most important of the modern operations of surgery / by Thomas D. Mütter.

  • Mütter, Thomas D. (Thomas Dent), 1811-1859.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory for 1844-5 : on the present position of some of the most important of the modern operations of surgery / by Thomas D. Mütter. 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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    Indeed, with the exception of the latter, all the others have with great wisdom been abandoned, and the acknowledged failure of this operation to afford more than temporary re- lief in many cases, while in others it was followed by death, induced surgeons to seek for something upon which their confidence could with greater security be placed. Accord- ingly, we find that some fifty years since L'Aumonier, of Rouen, extirpated an enlarged ovary, under the supposition that it was dropsical. The case turned out, however, to be one of abscess of the organ, and the patient ultimately re- covered. This was unquestionably, I believe, the first re- moval of a diseased ovarium; but soon after, in 1S09, Dr. McDowal, of Kentucky, performed the operation in a case of real ovarian dropsy, and the patient recovered. This successful result induced others to repeat the experiment; and since that period seventy cases in all have been reported, and, undoubtedly, others have been performed of which no account has been furnished. But at no period, probably, has there existed so much excitement in reference to this operation as at the present moment; and you will find, as is ever the case where men allow feeling or interest to ob- tain a mastery over their judgmeut, that the most disgrace- ful acrimony and harshness of language has been indulged in towards each other, by the advocates as well as the opponents of the measure in question. For my own part, gentlemen, I have endeavoured faithfully and cautiously to examine the subject, being prejudiced neither for nor against it, and must confess that, from the information now furnished to the world, I am induced to range myself among its opponents, except in cases of unilocular cyst without adhesions ; and even here I deem it altogether un- justifiable, until all other means have proven nugatory, and the fatal termination of the case without it appears inevi- table ; and when had recourse to, it becomes the bounden duty of the surgeon to state candidly its dangers, and the