Use of the dead to the living / [Southwood Smith].

  • Smith, Southwood, 1788-1861.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Use of the dead to the living / [Southwood Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/66 (page 19)
    with the appearance of the hernial sac, and of the changes which it undergoes by disease; with the ap¬ pearance of the various viscera contained in it, and of their changes ; and the hand must pay that steady and prompt obedience to the judgment ‘which nothing but knowledge and the consciousness of knowledge can command. Even this is not all. When the operation has been performed thus far with perfect skill and success, the most opposite measures are required according to the actual state of the organs contained in the sac. If they are agglutinated together—if por¬ tions of them are in a state of mortification, to return them into the cavity of the abdomen in that condition would in general be certain death. Preternatural ad¬ hesion must be removed ; mortified portions must be cut away : but how can this possibly be done without an acquaintance with healthy and diseased structure^ and how can this be obtained without dissecting the organs in a state of health and of disease ? It has been stated that the progress of strangulated hernia to a fatal termination is often frightfully rapid ; in certain cases to delay the operation, even for a very short period, is, therefore, to lose the only chance of success. But ignorant and half-informed surgeons are afraid to operate. They are conscious that the opera¬ tion is one of immense importance : they know that in the hands of an operator ignorant of anatomy, it is one of extreme hazard : they therefore put off the time as long as possible : they have recourse to every ex¬ pedient: they resort to every thing but the only efficient remedy, and when at last they are compelled by a secret sense of shame to try that, it is too late. All the best practical surgeons express themselves in the strongest language on the importance of performing the operation early, if it be performed at all. On this point there is a perfect accordance between the most celebrated practitioners on the continent, and the great surgeons of our own country: all represent, in many parts of their writings, the dangerous and fatal c 2