On ovariotomy / by J. Marion Sims.

  • Sims, J. Marion (James Marion), 1813-1883.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On ovariotomy / by J. Marion Sims. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    5/94
    ON OVARIOTOMY. When Clay, of Manchester, and Peaslee and the brothers Atlee, of America, began to perform ovariotomy, they met witli nothing but rebuke from their brethren, who stood aghast, and called them by the hardest of names. I was among the great herd that could scarcely find terms strong enough to con- demn what were then characterized as acts of butchery and murder. But, thanks to their unfaltering perseverance, sec- onded eventually so ably by Spencer Wells and Baker Brown in England, and by Kimball, Dunlap, and Bradford in our own country, ovariotomy is to-day recognized by the profession everywhere as a legitimate and justifiable operation. Twenty years ago I knew personally no one who was in favor of it; and now I can find no one opposed to it; and this complete revolution has been the work of but eight or ten years. It has become our habit of late to boast of the success of the operation. We pretend that we have perfected the method of operating, and that we are gradually curing a greater percentage from year to year. For myself I do not believe our method is perfect; and, while I must acknowledge that in the hands of a few skilled operators the mortality has