The modern advancement of practical medicine and surgery : an inaugural address to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh / by James Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
[1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern advancement of practical medicine and surgery : an inaugural address to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh / by James Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    pneumonia, peritonitis, etc. And I do believe that, at the present moment, any individual in the profession, who, in surgery or in midwifery, could point out some means of curing, or some prophylactic means of averting by antecedent treatment, the liability to these analogous or identical diseases,—viz., surgical or puerperal fever,—such a fortunate individual would, I say, make, in relation to surgery and midwifery, a greater and more important discovery than could possibly be attained in any other subject of investigation. Nor does such a result seem hopelessly unattainable, particularly when Ave see the occurrence of the disease in question —namely, surgical and puerperal fever—regulated by some special, constitutional, and other circumstances which we may yet be able to detect and remove. Sur- • gical fever, for instance, sometimes sIioavs no tendency to occur, even after the most severe forms of operation ; whilst, in other individuals, it Avill occasionally spring up suddenly and fatally after the most trifling use of the knife or ligature. It Avill occur after almost all operations in one season or one hospital, and not after I any operations in other seasons and other hospitals. And if its supervention is thus regulated and modified by various special circumstances, why may medical science not yet detect, and be able to control and regulate, these circumstances ? Or if once the blood does become modified and altered, and the disease is actually established, Avhy may Ave not hope for the discovery of means to eject the exist¬ ing poison by some excretory organ, as the kidney, skin, lungs, etc. ; or find even some direct antidote for the poison as it circulates in the blood itself? Lastly, As one of the latest improvements in the art of surgery, and as one in which the members of this Society have taken no small interest, permit me to allude to the power which the surgeon now possesses of wrapping the patient in a painless anaesthetic sleep, while his body is being examined for painful injuries and diseases, or is being subjected to the cauteries, scalpels, sutures, saws, and pulleys of the operator,—thus almost realising, in this artificial abrogation of pain and suffering, those dreams of the mystic and marvellous Avhich the fervid and fresh fancy of our younger days was taught to ascribe to the enchantment ] of the Arabian Nights, and the spells and charms of bygone ages. Medicine, as a practical art, has advanced during the last half century, perhaps as remarkably, or still more remarkably, than surgery. The modern physician has acquired a far more extended knoivledge than his predecessor of the last generation had, of the nature and diagnosis of the various diseases to which the body is liable. And in proportion as his knowledge has become more certain and precise, so also can he apply his medicinal measures and weapons with a greater certainty for the relief and removal of them. Besides, at the present day, the medical man knows, I believe, far better than Avas ascertained formerly, the I wonderful resources of nature in the cure of many diseases, inflammatory as well as febrile ; acute as Avell as chronic. He knows more precisely where he should leave nature to her OAvn unassisted efforts, and where he ought to strike in to aid 1 her with the resources of art. In illustration of hoiv much practical medicine has latterly progressed, I might again refer to various of the important advances to which I have already alluded under the previous heads of pathological anatomy, physical diagnosis, and