Diseases of the ovaries : their diagnosis and treatment / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Wells, Spencer, 1818-1897.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the ovaries : their diagnosis and treatment / by T. Spencer Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    to the minuteness with which he followed every detail of the operation as he had seen it performed by me in England. I had a successful case in Ghent in 1871, and Dr. Boddaert has had two successful cases this year. These four cases, I am informed, are the only instances of success out of about twenty operations in that country. Still it is hoped that they will be sufficient to encourage other Belgian surgeons to con- tinue their efforts to save life. Dr. Deroubaix has been in England this summer, with the express object of perfecting his knowledge of the various steps of the operation, and there can be little doubt of his reaping the reward of his intelligence and zeal. In Germany, until quite recently, ovariotomy was scarcely either talked or thought of. In 1819 and 1820, operations by Chrysmar, and in 1820, by Dzondi, only served to bring the operation into discredit. Dieffenbach, who had long condemned the operation, operated in 1826. He met with great difficulty in arresting the bleeding, but his operation was crowned with success. Martini, Eitter, and others followed Dieffenbach's example, but with so little success that, from 1826 to 1850, only three recoveries were obtained in twenty operations ; and, of eighteen completed operations, five proved fatal. Accomplished surgeons—Langenbeck, Heyfelder, Ki- wisch, Schulz, Siebold, and Scanzoni—tried what they could do, but failed; and it is not surprising that, for several years, the operation ceased to be practised. In 1866, my volume on 'Diseases of the Ovaries' was translated into German by Kiichenmeister. Billroth, who had assisted me, and who had carefully studied the whole subject, began to use his great influence with his countrymen to promote the general accept- ance of the operation. Nussbaum, of Munich, came twice to England, assisted me several times, and has performed ova- riotomy more frequently than any other German surgeon. Spiegelberg has entered upon a long career of successful ope- rations. Grenser, of Dresden, has made known the results of a long visit to England in an able review of what he saw here ; and ovariotomy is undoubtedly now becoming generally accepted by the profession in Germany as one of the triumphs of surgery. The work of Grenser was published in 1870, entitled ' Ova-