The training of the surgeon : the annual address in medicine delivered at Yale University, June 27, 1904 / by William Stewart Halsted.

  • Halsted, William, 1852-1922.
Date:
[1904]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The training of the surgeon : the annual address in medicine delivered at Yale University, June 27, 1904 / by William Stewart Halsted. 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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    in America had hardly begun, and it may be of interest to [370] note some of its characteristics at that time. The discovery of ether was not so old as to have obliterated all traces of the old surgical rule, “ Cito, tuto, jucunde,” but the rapid method of operating was gradually giving place to the safer one. Conservative surgery was made possible by general anaes- thesia, as was illustrated particularly well in the exsection of joints and the subperiosteal resection of bone. The discov- ery of the ophthalmoscope, an invention of incalculable im- portance, had led to the establishment of the specialized eye surgeon, and it soon proved a great boon to general surgery, leading as it did to the adoption of innumerable specula and mirrors for the examination of hitherto unexplored regions. As a result of a reaction against bleeding and against the reckless waste of blood at operations, there developed a fond- ness, almost a mania, for bloodless operations, for styptics and the actual cautery, for ecrasement lineaire (Chassaig- nac), for galvano-puncture and electrolysis. To the em- ployment of galvano-puncture in the treatment of arterial angiomata is due the introduction by Pravaz of the hypoder- mic syringe, which it is interesting to note was originally designed solely for the purpose of conveying to these growths a substance (solution of chloride of iron) capable of produc- ing coagulation. This little instrument, destined soon to play a part so useful, so indispensable, entitles its inventor to the lasting gratitude of mankind. None of these methods for the bloodless division of tissues was destined to supplant the knife, so that surgeons became interested in devising better means for the prevention of loss of blood. In 1873, at the German Congress of Sur- geons, in Berlin, von Esmarch gave to the world his method of producing artificial bloodlessness (“ die kiinstliche Blut- lehre’O “ Verhandlungen der deutschen Ges. f. Chirurgie, 1896. (The Jubilee Congress.) Von Esmarch Is one of the very few surgeons living who, even as a student, can recall the days before anaesthesia. He maintains that he who was not a participant of those times cannot picture to himself the enthu- siasm which took possession of every physician, and particularly of the students in the surgical clinic. Whereas before the introduction of ether, the operating rooms were filled with the groans and shrieks of the unfortu- nate victims, the appalling spectacle causing many students to faint, now, of a sudden, absolute quiet reigns, a stillness almost supernatural, broken