The influence of anaesthesia on the surgery of the nineteenth century / by J. Collins Warren.

Date:
[1897?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The influence of anaesthesia on the surgery of the nineteenth century / by J. Collins Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    tures dressings were thrust between the ends of broken bones, as if they had been afraid of the formation of callus.^ At the opening of the century the improvement of the tech- nique of the French school was very noticeable. This was due not only to the organizing powers of Napoleon, but to the development of military surgery. The influence of such work as was done by Larrey upon French surgery must have been enormous. It is said that Larrey performed alone in one day 200 amputations after the battle of Moskowa. His operations were not confined to amputations alone. His memoirs contain ac- counts of double amputations of the thigh, resection of the head of the humerus, pharyngotomy for the removal of a portion of a bayonet compressing the laryngeal nerve, and several cases of wounds of the abdomen complicated with injury of the intes- tines and bladder—all successful. Larrey points out that Faure reported after the battle of Fontenoy that of 300 amputations only 30 recovered, but that in his cases three-fourths of the patients recovered. He attri- buted these results to primary operations and to a more simple, speedy, and less painful method of operation. The asepsis, which in a certain number of cases must have existed, is no doubt to be attributed to the rapidity, and therefore extreme simplicity, of the method employed. Warm camphorated or sweetened wine often formed an application on the dressing, and may have contributed to the favorable result. As severe a test as any upon his method was the successful excision of loose cartilages from the knee-joint. The opera- tion consisted of a single cut while the skin was held tense, and was practically a subcutaneous operation, a plaster was quickly clapped on, and the wound healed by first intention. We may still be able to learn something from these old campaigners ! Oilier says rapidity was the quality demanded of all operators, ' Physic and Physicians. ' Larrey relates that alter the battle of Moskowa he performed amputation at the shoulder-joint on a Chef de Bataillon, who immediately after the wound was dressed mounted his horse and departed for France. The horse died en route, but the officer arrived home safely.