Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, at Greenwich, on several of the pensioners belonging thereto, for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia.

  • Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen, at Greenwich, on several of the pensioners belonging thereto, for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia. 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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    15 now request your attention to the comparative re^ suits of the different operations (the new and old)^ as specified in the official Reports of the Physician, Surgeon, and Apothecary toyourlnstitution; which, with the personal examination you intend this day to make of the two sets of Patients, must necessarily establish, beyond all doubt, the decided superiority of my modes of operating, over that which had been previously practised on the Pensioners. And here I beg leave to repeat the observation I made at my first interview with your Honourable Board, that it is the operation^ and not the operator^ which I deprecate. Were he to adopt my opera- tions, or were I to follow his, the results of the two modes of practice would probably be nearly tha same as they are now found to be ; nor shall I hesitate to add my firm belief, that superior manual dexterity is not to be found in this kingdom, than is possessed by the operator whose efforts have proved so unavailing, in the many instances sub- mitted to your consideration. It is, I conceive, the want of a personal experience of the superior efficacy of my practice, which prevents his adopting it with the same promptitude, as another Oculist of long-established celebrity has done, since he saw me operate; who, before that period, was distin- guished by his practice, as well as writings, as one of the warmest advocates of the operation of Ex- traction,