Observations on cleft palate and on staphyloraphy / by W. Fergusson.

  • Fergusson, William.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on cleft palate and on staphyloraphy / by W. Fergusson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/18
    OBSERVATIONS ON CLEFT PALATE, AND ON STAPHYLORAPHY. By W. FERGUSSON, Esq., F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. A Lecture delivered at King's College, and afterwards published in the Medical Times, 6th and 13th March, 1847, vol. xvi. Author’s experience increased since the reading of his paper on these subjects in 1844, before the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London ; nature of cleft palate; different forms and kinds of; its complication with harelip; effects of malformation on deglutition, and on voice and speech ; method of obviating defects before modern operation of staphyloraphy; advantages and disadvantages of latter proceeding; indifferent success of the operation, although performed by most of the leading surgeons in Europe and America; success of Roux, Mutter, and Dr. J. M. Warren; apathy of British surgeons on the subject; author’s investigations; anatomy and physiology of cleft palate first described by him; new operation proposed and performed by author, and its success in various instances; reviews of different proposals, by Roux, Bushe, Dieffenbach, Pancoast, Liston, Mittauer, and J. M. Warren; fit cases for operation; age proper for its performance; author’s operation described; ligatures and knots; new knot; after-treatment; causes of failure of operation; examples of success of author’s plan ; effects of operation on voice and speech, &c. Two years have now elapsed since I delivered a special lecture on these subjects, and about the same time I communicated a paper to the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, which was afterwards honoured with a place in the volume of “ Transactions” for the year 1845. During the interval my experience has accumulated, and I am now desirous of stating the results, while, at the same time, I bring before my pupils as much upon such topics as pertains to the duties of the chair which I occupy in this college. The state of the mouth, familiarly known under the name of cleft palate, is congenital, although a condition somewhat analogous to it occasionally results from injury or disease. It is chiefly to the natural malformation that the following observations apply, although they are suitable in many respects to other imperfections in the palate and roof of the mouth generally. The congenital defect is met with in a variety of forms: in some instances the fissure is limited to the uvula, when that part appears double; in others the fissure extends further forward, so as to leave the velum in two halves; the whole, or a portion only of this part, may he thus; the fissure may extend partially or entirely through the hard palate; the alveolar ridge may also be implicated, in which case the condition is usually, if not always, accompanied with B