A summary of the results recorded in a series of lectures ... on the nature, progress, and treatment of complicated injuries of the extremities, and on amputation and its effects in civil and military practice / [Sir Rutherford Alcock].

  • Alcock, Rutherford, Sir, 1809-1897
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A summary of the results recorded in a series of lectures ... on the nature, progress, and treatment of complicated injuries of the extremities, and on amputation and its effects in civil and military practice / [Sir Rutherford Alcock]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS RECORDED IN A SERIES OF LECTURES DELIVERED AT SYDENHAM COLLEGE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, ON THE NATURE, PROGRESS, AND TREATMEN OF COMPLICATED INJURIES OF THE EXTREMITIES, AND ON AMPUTATION AND ITS EFFECT IN CIVIL AND MILITARY PRACTICE. VC BY RUTHERFORD AS.COCK, X.C.T., &e. &.C., I LECTURER ON SURGERY, AND LATE DEPUTY INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF HOSPITAL IN THE AUXILIARY FORCES OF PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. Part I. I Object of the present series of lectures stated. How endeavoured to be attained. Necessity for care and discrimination in the materials employed. These forming the elements for any judgment upon the questions invoiced in amputation, and by which they are to be de¬ cided. True objects of amputation classed and defined. Results on the system, of those v forms of chronic local disease for which am putation is adopted. Results of the injuries of civil life for which amputation is usually performed. Results of the injuries of mili¬ tary life, in like manner treated to the end without operation. Modifications in the results induced by varying conditions, moral and physical. Causes, or diseased actions, which lead to amputation under different circumstances, compared with the causes of death. Causes of variation in the relative A proportion of amputations required, and of a deaths occurring while cases are under treat¬ ment. il propose in this concluding lecture to give a n summary of the principal results of the in¬ is quiry which you have followed, step by g step, into the nature, progress, and termina- W tions of the more complicated forms of injuries i of the extremities, when submitted to treat- xkment; and, finally, of the results of amputa- wtion, when performed at primary, interme¬ rs diary, or secondary periods, by different ope- flrative methods, and under different influences, !/physical and dynamic. I purpose to bring ol before you at the same time, in a condensed irform, the principles of practice these results ' aare calculated to establish, and the legitimate (Shearing of the facts upon some of the leading 3doctrines of the present day in relation to am¬ putation, its relative expediency and efficacy :.at different periods, and the treatment of r grave and complicated injuries of the extre¬ mities. n In commencing this series of lectures, I proposed to myself an object certainly not hitherto attained. I believe that you will find an inquiry, such as we have been engaged in, similar in aim and scope, and carried out in all its details, had not pre¬ viously been attempted. But if I thus seem to claim any merit for the attempt, I beg you to believe that my labours were undertaken with no feeling of overweening confidence, but with a full consciousness of all the diffi¬ culties of my task. I have been impelled chiefly by a strong conviction of the import¬ ance and scientific interest attached to the sub¬ ject. And on this ground have I ventured to engage at such length your attention. I must beg you also to believe that I recall the circumstances at this moment, conscious that my best efforts in this almost untrodden path have fallen far short of my wishes, and of the exigency of the subject. Yet the oppor¬ tunities I have had of studying the effects of injuries and operations have been unusual, and seemed to justify the attempt. Many years a principal medical officer in two services, during which I was entrusted alike with the duties of the field in every action, and with the organisation and direc¬ tion of all the hospitals required for the sick and the wounded of the auxiliary forces en¬ gaged, it was not less a pleasure than an imperative duty, to devote every hour not actually spent in the field, or on the line of march, to the study and treatment of the cases, medical and surgical, filling large hospitals, and for the efficient care of which I was justly held responsible. Perhaps I am indebted to the flattering confidence which entrusted me with such heavy and responsible duties at an earlier period of my professional life, than in ordinary circumstances is usual, not only for enlarged opportunities of studying disease and injury in all its aspects, but for that zest and devotion to the labour it entailed, which I always felt and believed to be the only adequate return I could make. A