Use of the dead to the living : from the Westminster review.
- Smith, T. Southwood (Thomas Southwood), 1788-1861.
- Date:
- 1827
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Use of the dead to the living : from the Westminster review. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![stance beneath it, with the appearance of the hernial sac, am! of the changes which it undergoes by disease j with the appearance of the various viscera contained in it, and of their changes: and the hand must pay that steady and firompt obedience to the judgment, which nothing but know- edge, and the consciousness of knowledge, can command. Even this is not all. When the operation has been perform- ed thus far with perfect skill and success, the most opposite measures are required according to the actual state of the organs contained in the sac. If they are agglutinated toge- gether—if portions of them are in a state of mortification, to return them into the cavity of the abdomen in that con- dition, would, in general, be certain death. Preternatural adhesion must be removed; mortified portions must be cut away : but how can this possibly be done without an acquain- tance with healthy and diseased structure, and how can this be obtained without dissecting the organs in a state of health and of disease? It has been stated that the progress of strangulated her- nia to a fatal termination is often frightfully rapid ; in cer- tain cases to delay the operation, even for a very short pe- riod, is, therefore, to lose the only chance of success. But ignorant and half informed surgeons are afraid to operate. They are conscious that the operation is one of immense importance : they know that in the hands of an operator ignorant of anatomy, it is one of extreme hazard: they therefore put off the time as long as possible: they have re- course to every expedient: they resort to every thing but the only efficient remedy, and when at last they are com- pelled by a secret sense of shame to try that, it is too late. All the best practical surgeons express themselves in the strongest language on the importance of performing the op- eration earlv. if it be performed at all. On this point there is a perfect accordance between the most celebrated practi- tioners on the continent, and the great surgeons of our own country : all represent, in many parts of their writings, the dangerous and fatal effects of delay. Mr. Hey in his Prac- tir al Observations, states that when he first began to prac- tice, he considered the operation as the last resource, and only to be employed when the danger appeared imminent. •'By this dilatory mode of practice, says he, I lost three patients in five, upon whom the operation was perform- ed. Having more experience of the urgency of the disease, ] made it my custom, when called to a patient who had la- boured two or three days under the disease, to wait only about two hours, that I might try the effect of bleeding (if that evacuation was not forbidden by some peculiar circum- stance of the case) and the tobacco clyster. In this mode of practice, 1 lost about two patients in nine, upon whom I](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21155495_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
