List of some of the contributions to surgical literature by William Macewen, Lecturer on Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, and Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow : with comments by the medical press, and other published statements by surgeons on the ideas advanced and the work done by him.

  • Macewen, William, Sir, 1848-1924.
Date:
[©1888?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: List of some of the contributions to surgical literature by William Macewen, Lecturer on Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, and Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow : with comments by the medical press, and other published statements by surgeons on the ideas advanced and the work done by him. 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.

    21/52 (page 21)
    III. Observations concerning Transplantation of Bone. Illustrated by a Case of Interhuman Osseous Trans- plantation, whereby over Two-thirds of the Shaft OF A Humerus were restored. Read before the Royal Society, London, May, 1881, and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, No. 213, 1881. “ De la Transplantation des os. Experiences de Transplanta- tion Osseuse Inter-humaine.” (M. W. Macewen.) This was received by the Academic des Sciences —seance dii 20 Jiiin, 1881—and published in the Comptes Rendus des Seances de VAcacUmie, The former communication was commented on by Mr. Busk Mr. Bowman, Prof. A. Thomson, and Prof. Huxley. The latter was discussed bv M. Ollier in the Academie des Sciences, Paris. The following is an extract from Prof. Allen Thomson’s speech on the paper before the Royal Society:— Dr. Allen Thomson said that “ he gladly took occasion to express his satisfaction with the important paper which had been communicated by his friend and former pupil. Dr. Macewen, and which had described so well the happy result of a novel and ingenious experiment in practical surgery. “ It was obvious from the careful statement made by the author, that however near to success previous attempts at the transplant- ation of bone have been in some animals, nothing deserving the name had been arrived at in the human subject; and so remark- able was the success which had been attained in this case, that it appeared almost certain that if the proceeding could be repeated, so as to become a practical method, as appeared in every way probable from Dr. Macewen’s statement, a most important improvement in surgery, amounting in fact to a great triumph over the most severe and hitherto hopeless defect following upon the loss of the shaft, or a large portion of bone by necrosis would be brought about. “ The ingenious adoption of the plan of minute subdivisions of the pieces of bone accompanied by their periosteum which were to make up the mass of bone substituted for that lost from disease,