The evolution of the operating table / by William Seaman Bainbridge.

  • Bainbridge, William Seaman, 1870-1947.
Date:
1912, ©1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The evolution of the operating table / by William Seaman Bainbridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/44 (page 2)
    universal use. Then, and even later, very little dis¬ tinction was made between examination tables and strictly surgical or operating tables. There devel¬ oped also, at this time, the so called operating chairs, which were the progenitors of the modern adjustable tables. Wood was still the material al¬ most exclusively used, although a few attempts at making iron tables are noted. 4. From the early eighties to the present time, or the era of aseptic surgery, and of modern hos¬ pital construction and equipment, when drainage, Fig. 1.—Table used in 1741. universal adaptability, simplicity of mechanism, and the requirements of asepsis were the objects in view. I. In studying the early history of medicine it is interesting to note that major operations, including laparotomies, were performed long before the dawn of the Christian era. The instruments used by the surgeons of olden times have been fairly well pre¬ served in the archives, but it is quite different with reference to the operating table, and other operat¬ ing room facilities. While operations are described,