The evolution of surgery / by J. Ewing Mears.

  • Mears, J. Ewing (James Ewing), 1838-1918.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The evolution of surgery / by J. Ewing Mears. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    11/20 (page 7)
    Considering the immense advantage gained in operative sur- gery by the successful control of hemorrahge which the ligature afforded, it would seem proper to give to its general introduction the importance of marking a new era in the “ unfolding ” or “orderly succession of events” which have characterized surgical development. As, up to this time of the recognized power exerted by the liga- ture in the absolute control of hemorrhage, so since then, have no means or agents been discovered to displace it, notwithstanding the repeated efforts, through observation and experiment, which have been made, so that to-day, the perfected ligature—that which has been deprived by skilful preparation of all of the objections urged against the original—gives to the surgeon well-assured con- fidence in its use in any operation which may be undertaken. The study of surgical progress in the second period which we have chosen, through the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and a portion of the nineteenth centuries, from the time of Pare and his work, to the introduction of ether as an anaesthetic agent and its use, by Warren, in surgical operation for the first time in history, shows that much time was consumed and labor expended in the correc- tion of the errors of ancient surgery and the establishment of the art upon a scientific basis. Increased knowledge and experience permitted the application of a refining and elaborating process to the surgical operations practised in the previous times. To the list, already marvellously lengthened, considering the opportunities of that period, new operations were added, notably the operation of trephining, which it is recorded was performed seventeen times upon Philip William, the Prince of Orange, for inveterate migraine. In military surgery the new methods of warfare, with the use of arms of precision, presented to the army surgeons new problems with which they had to deal in the treatment of the wounded soldier. The study of human anatomy, so auspiciously begun in the school of Alexandria three hundred years before the Christian era, was assiduously cultivated and became the foundation of correct surgical knowledge upon which the practice was built. In