Critical remarks upon the misstatements as to interdental splints in the surgical treatise of Professor D. Hayes Agnew, M.D. / by Thomas Brian Gunning.

  • Gunning, Thomas Brian, -1889.
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Critical remarks upon the misstatements as to interdental splints in the surgical treatise of Professor D. Hayes Agnew, M.D. / by Thomas Brian Gunning. 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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    REMARKS. 34 East 21 st Street, New York, November 26, 1883. To D. Hayes Agnew, Esq., M. D., L. L. D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. Sir : In the preface to your recently completed work, “ The Prin- ciples and Practice of Surgery,” you say: “ In the composition of its pages, while I have expressed my own views independently on all subjects, I have also endeavored, as far as was consistent with the scope and limits of the work, to record those of other writers, not only that the student and the practitioner may be made familiar with the literature of their profession, but also that they may be able in their observation and practice to contrast different plans of treatment, and in this way draw their own conclusions in regard to the relative merits of the various modes of managing surgical disease. Whatever may be the defects of the work—and none can be more sensible of these than myself—I have endeavored most conscientiously to furnish a safe and reliable guide for the surgical practitioner.” With this in view, those for whose instruction you wrote could not suspect that the work contains statements which are untrue, and mis- lead in regard to the treatment of any important injury. Yet the section on “ Fractures of the Inferior Maxillary Bone ” contains such statements. To give a clear understanding of the matter to you, and to all who may read this letter, I quote from your article verbatim and remark upon the misrepresentations. In Vol. I., page 846, you refer to the interdental splints devised by me and used in treating fractures of the maxilla, as follows :