On couching of the lens, as practised by native practioners in India / by R. H. Elliot.

  • Elliot, Robert Henry, 1864-1936.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On couching of the lens, as practised by native practioners in India / by R. H. Elliot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    ceiitage of successes. Even when one is on one's guard, one is probably often deliberately de- ceived. I am sure I am. The difficulty of getting a true history of a case is proverbial in the South of India at least. I do not say that the lamentable results here published are the best the vaithyan can do, but what one hears of his methods would not encourage the belief that he is likely to do any better. Here in the South, there appear to be two classes of operators, the resident men who live for long periods in one bazaar, and the travellers who move continuously from place to place. Both are Mahomedans. The former appear to get somewhat better results than the latter, and are spoken of as men of experience, The latter seem never to stop long in one place. They collect a number of victims, operate on them and then move on before their sins can find them out. Both kinds of operators seem to be innocent of any attempt at securing asepsis or antisepsis; they use a dirty needle or a sharp wooden skewer ; no anaesthetic is employed ; a bandage is kept on for 10 days, and counter-iri itation is freely resorted to, to combat iritis, &c. Many of the victims are ashamed to come to a Eui opean liospital after the failure of their hopes. It has been said that if the vaithyan did not get good results he would be dropped, and the practice would die out. Tliis remark can only have come from one who knew nothing of the Indian character, or the crass ignorance of the lower classes of the people. It is hard for those who have not lived and worked amongst them to rea- lise how easily the ryot falls a dupe to impudent self-advertisement. He is a simple kindly person whose imi)licit trust in confident seit- ussertion will bring him to grief for many another