Sketches of the lives and works of the honorary medical staff of the Manchester Infirmary, from its foundation in 1752 to 1830, when it became the Royal Infirmary / by Edward Mansfield Brockbank.

  • Brockbank, E. M. (Edward Mansfield), 1866-
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sketches of the lives and works of the honorary medical staff of the Manchester Infirmary, from its foundation in 1752 to 1830, when it became the Royal Infirmary / by Edward Mansfield Brockbank. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    the Infirmary code which are most interesting at the present day :— As a hospital is the best school for practical surgery, it would be liberal and beneficial to invite in rotation two surgeons of the town, who do not belong to the institution, to be present at each opera- tion. Apprentices or students were at this time taught at the hospital, but they were only few in number. The other extract is more striking to us of the chloroform era:— A decorous silence ought to be observed [in the operating theatre]. It may be humane and salutary, however, for one of the attend- ing physicians or surgeons to speak occasionally to the patient, to comfort him under his sufferings, and to give him assurance (if consistent with truth) that the operation goes on well, and promises a speedy and successful termination, One hundred years old though it be, much of Percival's code is fitted for the present day, and all of it could be read with much pleasure and profit by us. The second edition of the Ethics, published in 1827 by an anonymous editor, probably a surgeon, is interesting, inasmuch as it contains in the form of editorial notes much curious information concerning the history of the profession and its condition in the