Anatomy : proceedings at the National Political Union, respecting legislative interference in the study of anatomy, and the supply of bodies for anatomical research.

  • National Political Union.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Anatomy : proceedings at the National Political Union, respecting legislative interference in the study of anatomy, and the supply of bodies for anatomical research. 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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    Lithotomy, that ie cutting for stone in the bladder. Any man who understands the process would laugh to scorn him who should say that this could be taught by plates and models and operations on animals, either living or dead, and by tbe few actual operations any pupil could witness with sufficient minuteness in hospitals. Again, in most of the principal operations the difficulties are not much less than they are in Lithotomy, but in many nice yet highly important operations there can be no guide at all but that which is obtained by operations carefully repeated on the dead body. No operation can be successfully performed unless the hand of the operator be steady, and what also is of equal importance, sure; yet how is the hand to be steady if the mind be in doubt? and how is doubt to be prevented but by a minute and correct acquaintance with each particular muscle, vein and artery, and how is this knowledge to be acquired but by repeatedly dissecting the human body? Then as to certainty. I mean by certainty that the ope- rator’s knife shall do neither more nor less than is intended, that it shall do just what is intended in the cleanest man- ner and in the shortest space of time. Let us take as an example the cutting off of a limb; this never can be learnt by cutting off the limbs of an animal: nothing but repeated amputations of the human subject can give this certainty, and nothing short of considerable practice in this way ever could have led to the certainty, the safety, and the incre- dibly short time in which amputation is now performed. Then as to the nicer operations. I will mention one, a gentleman had a complaint on one side of his face, it went through into his mouth, the whole of the upper jaw on that side became diseased, and the bone was carious, that is, it was, what is called rotten. A surgeon well- known to me, seeing there was no chance of saving his patient’s life unless he could remove the bone, and a con- siderable portion of the cheek, contemplated doing so, and what do you suppose he did ? he carefully examined his patient, and then dissected the face of a dead body, the operation he contemplated was a desperate one, and doubtful of success, he reasoned on the case, examined and re-examined his patient, dissected other faces, and thus he went on for some time dissecting, examining and reasoning, until he had so fortified himself that he durst venture on the actual operation; he succeeded, and the gentleman is now alive. Other such cases and cures have since occurred, and particularly one in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Who then, I ask, that is acquainted with such facts as these, will deny that the dissection of human B