Hunterian reminiscences; being the substance of a course of lectures on the principles and practice of surgery, delivered by ... J. Hunter, in the year 1785 / taken in short-hand, and afterwards fairly transcribed by ... James Parkinson ... Edited by his son, J.W.K. Parkinson ..., by whom are appended illustrative notes.

Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hunterian reminiscences; being the substance of a course of lectures on the principles and practice of surgery, delivered by ... J. Hunter, in the year 1785 / taken in short-hand, and afterwards fairly transcribed by ... James Parkinson ... Edited by his son, J.W.K. Parkinson ..., by whom are appended illustrative notes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    simple accident may be attended with such circumstances as will prevent the more simple process of nature taking place ; such, for instance, as the magnitude of the vessel ruptured, or a fractured rib wounding the lungs, &c. The second division of injuries from accidents is, where there is an external communication. A wound is either simple or compound ; the simple I mean now to explain by saying, that it is a breach made in the continuity of a part. By a wound there are a number of vessels divided, and a variety of internal parts exposed. There are two modes of cure ; the natural, and that by art. By the natural is meant, union by the first intention ; when this cannot be obtained, a new bond of union, a secondary operation takes place, inflam- mation ; and if this is lost, then a third mode—granulation. In that by art we have to imitate the former natural position of parts disturbed by the accident, and to retain them by art in that position ; then nature causes the superfluous quantity of the extravasated blood remaining in the wound to be absorbed, whilst the living part forms a true bond of union for the divided parts: the red globules are, indeed, absorbed, and the coagulable lymph remaining is really the bond of union. The time of replacing the divided parts is, perhaps, best whilst the extravasation continues, but it may also be done when the discharge of coagulable lymph, and the adhesive or first stage of inflam- mation, takes place. Sometimes the inflammation runs so high as to get to the suppura- tive stage: the extravasated fluids or the solids may lose their living principle, and so become a stimulus, exciting inflammation. By the adhesive inflammation different parts of the same body may be united together, nay, parts of different bodies. Thus I shew here the testicle of a cock separated from that animal, and put through a wound made for that purpose into the belly of a hen (this mode of turning hens into cocks is much such an improvement for its utility as that of Dean Swift’s, where he proposes to obtain a breed of sheep without wool) ; the hen was afterwards killed, and the testicle was found adhering to its intestines, as may be here seen in this preparation, where the testicle, with the part of the intestine connected with it, is preserved : and here is pre- served the spur of one cock engrafted into the leg of another ; this, you see, has but just taken root, as it were, but is undoubtedly united. This is a preparation 1 had liked to have overlooked ; it is the comb of a cock, in which was inserted the tooth of a Christian, if you please : this, you see, has taken firm root in the comb ; for it being injected, you may perceive the vessels of the comb passing into the tooth. These living bodies, thus applied to each other, produce adhesive, not suppurative inflammation : in the same manner the eggs of one animal, laid in the flesh of another, do not excite the suppurative inflammation. This would not be the case if the inserted body did not contain the principle of life ; for the part would run into the suppurative inflammation, as would be the case with a pea so introduced. While the guinea-worm is endowed with the living principle, it gives but little trouble ; yet, if killed, it gives the stimulus of an extraneous body, which produces suppuration through its whole length. In this preparation you see a maggot, deposited just below the skin of the back of a