A plea for exploration in suspected malignant disease of the ovary : with illustrative cases : being the Ingleby lectures for 1904, delivered at the University of Birmingham, May 10th and 17th, 1904 / by Charles J. Cullingworth.

  • Cullingworth, Charles J. (Charles James), 1841-1908.
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A plea for exploration in suspected malignant disease of the ovary : with illustrative cases : being the Ingleby lectures for 1904, delivered at the University of Birmingham, May 10th and 17th, 1904 / by Charles J. Cullingworth. 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.

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    It is evident, in short, that Dr. Ingleby fully merited the honour done to his name in the foundation of this lecture- ship and of the scholarships that form part of the trust; for his undoubted pre-eminence in obstetrics, both as a lecturer, as a writer, and as a practitioner, conferred upon the Bir- mingham school a great reputation in that branch of medicine, just as, in later times, the pioneer work of a great Birmingham surgeon gave it an even greater celebrity in the kindred subject of gynaecology. In deciding upon a subject for these lectures, it seemed to me that I ought, if possible, to utilise some of the clinical material with which an experience of more than thirty years of active professional work^ both in hospital and private practice, has furnished me. In a paper published so long ago as the year 1887, I expressed the opinion that “whoever accepts a hospital appointment undertakes grave responsibilities, rot only to the institution he serves but to the profession of which he is a member, and that not the least of the responsibilities that come under this latter head is that of making public from time to time the results of his hospital experience and of endeavouring to present them in such a shape as will make them useful to his professional brethren.” Being still of this opinion, I am about to narrate to you, and comment upon, a group of cases which greatly impressed me at the time of their occurrence, and which, if I can at all succeed in presenting you with a true picture of them, may serve to illustrate certain difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian tumours. I believe that in this way I shall be interpreting my duty as Ingleby Lecturer in the manner Ingleby himself would have desired me to interpret it, for the preface to one of his own books opens with these words: “ A faithful record and an extensive collection of well-authenticated cases afford the only means of advancing the progress of our knowledge in medicine.” It is a trite observation that one learns more from one’s mistakes and failures than from one’s successes. Impressed with the truth of this, the editor of one of our professional