Observations on the statistics of hernia, and on the anatomical causes which determine its production / by Robert Knox.

  • Knox, Robert, 1791-1862.
Date:
[1837]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the statistics of hernia, and on the anatomical causes which determine its production / by Robert Knox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    on the left side of the body. (p. 33.) All this is extremely pro- bable, but then it is merely probable, no exact data existing in confirmation of these statements. The inhabitants of the Cape never labour at all; at least so it appeared to me in respect to the farmers on the northern and eastern frontier of the colony, and IVlr Barrow has recorded the indolence of the colonists as incredible and extreme. In this respect I presume they act like other men ; there being no ne- cessity for labour they very naturally avoid it. Yet they are said to be much subject to hernia. That 1 may not fall into the error just censured, of speaking and writing from no positive data, I had better mention the circumstance that first led me to notice the fact; if correct, and of it I have little doubt, it proves that here is a healthy well-formed race who never labour, and who yet are peculiarly subject to hernia. I acted for some months as surgeon to a corps of yeomanry, perhaps about 900 strong, and composed almost exclusively of Dutch farmers and their sons, and of all ages ; one of these farmers a mulatto, however, claim- ed exemption from active service, on account of a large and pen- dulous tumour, growing from the inside of the thigh, and on examining this tumour, I also remarked an inguinal hernia. My report to the commanding officer, an affluent Dutchman, was, that I thought this man should not proceed with us, on two grounds, first, by reason of the tumour, and secondly, on account of a hernia for which he had no truss. The commanding offi- cer cautioned me not to sanction the hernia as a cause, else we might have to discharge a third at least of the men next day; for he verily believed that a third of the corps was subject to that troublesome accident to which he himself also was liable. Allowing the statement to be a little exaggerated, yet it argues a frequency of hernia in a race of men enjoying the greatest ease and comfort, almost without a parallel; but they are very much on horseback, and to this perhaps may be attributed a complaint, which just now we have seen ascribed to labour. I ought to mention also their great disposition to corpulency. With the medical theorist we are forced to shift our ground, and next in- quire into exercise on horseback as a cause of hernia. * That hernia is frequent at the Cape where most persons ride much on horseback may be admitted, though in what proportion to the population or to other surgical diseases, it is impossible to say: but is it frequent amongst the Cossacks, the Tartars, * To the credit of this corps of yeomanry, it ough t to be mentioned, that none claimed exemption from service on the score of hernia, and very few from any cause what- ever : even the individual above alluded to was not a pure Dutchman but of a half- breed. I have sometimes fancied that hernia is frequent in mulattocs, but my ob- servations ar not sufficiently extensive to warrant any conclusion.