The operative story of goitre : the author's operation / by William S. Halsted.

  • Halsted, William, 1852-1922.
Date:
[1919]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The operative story of goitre : the author's operation / by William S. Halsted. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ According to Mandt in Rust’s Magazin, vol. 37, p. 413; and Lan- genbeck, Chirurgie, v, p. 306 (note), Albucasis is listed among those who performed this operation about the year 330. In the local library I have not been able to find any passages bearing on this. “ Paulus ABgineta, who lived 400 years later, evidently refers, like Celsus, to tumors of the lymphatic glands when he speaks of ampu¬ tating strumas. Guy de Chauliac (1363) advocated the extirpation of goitre instead of treatment by ‘ sympathetical ’ means. “ Extirpation is next mentioned by Johannes de Vigo (1501 to 1512). “ Mandt, in Rust’s Magazin, vol. 34, p. 414, states that Amatus Lusitanus about the year 1550 relates that an tf audax homo’ excised small goitres, and thereby exposed the trachea. I therefore consulted the 1557 edition of the works of this author and found only two passages which could be construed as bearing on the extirpation of goitres. One is found in Centur. Ill, Curatio 56, p. 416, and is entitled tf De Strumis’; the other, in Centur. IV, Curatio 58, p. 597, and is entitled ‘ De Strumis Dictis Scrofulosis.’ But one soon becomes convinced that by the former he means scrofulous abscesses, and by the latter swollen lymph glands. “ It is doubtful whether the accounts of Fabricius ab Aquapendente (1613) and of Marchetti (1664) relate to an extirpated goitre or to swollen glands. “ Joh. Jessen speaks also of an operation on a bronchocele, but he certainly alludes to a swollen gland. Dionis, in his Cours d’operations de chirurgie, 4th edition, 1740, p. 639, after describing struma lym- phatica, gives explicit directions for operation. After reading his description of the operation, one doubts whether the author really performed it or only witnessed it. “ According to the account of Mandt, there is an observation by Muralt which makes it seem very probable that an extirpation was accomplished. The communications of Wepfer (1727) and Wiese- mann probably relate only to the excision of lymphatic glands. I cannot find anything in Muralt and Wepfer bearing on this operation. “ On the contrary, Forestor, Fulvius Gherli (1710), Petit, Roon- huysen, Horn, and Conrad Ludwig Walther seem to have excised true goitres. Mandt credits also Joseph Warner. In the translation of the fourth edition, 1787, pp. 83 and 84, I have found only two cases which could possibly be considered under this heading. After reading the full description of these cases I am convinced that they were not goitres. “Laurentius Heister, 1752, seems to have performed the operation several times, for he says in the second edition of his large Chirurgie, vol. ii, p. 659, that he has never found it necessary to use the red-hot iron on account of bleeding. He also describes, in detail, the operative procedure.