Cases illustrative of the antiseptic use of carbolic acid / by Joseph Bell.

  • Bell, Joseph, 1837-1911.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases illustrative of the antiseptic use of carbolic acid / by Joseph Bell. 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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    2Ath.—20 clays after operation patient left hospital. 2. Amputation of Thigh.—2Q>th December.—W. W., set. 64, wa run over by a train some time during the night of the 2oth December,! near Carstairs. Lay on ground all night, from 10 P.M. till 5 A.M.; lost an immense deal of blood, and was brought in by train. iVoj pulse at wrist on admission. His right leg was shatterecl to the knee ; indeed, the foot hung only by a few tendons. I amputated, to give him a chanee, through the lower third o thigh ‘ and though several times on the table he appeared to be dead, and required artificial respiration, he was got to bed alive. He was dressed in same manner as Case 1. He lived four days, during which time he never thoroughly recovered consciousness. The stump did not seem to give him uneasiness. This case could hardly count either for or against the method of dressing, 3. Amputation at Ankle.—John Ovenston, get. 23, got his right foot smashed to a jelly by the wheel of a railway engine. ^th January^ 2 A.M.—I had very little room, but succeeded in getting a heel flap, though with some misgivings, as I had to cut within half an inch of the incision made by the flange of the engine wheel. Vessels tied and wound dressed, as described in Case 1. ^th.—No pain, no discharge; a drop or two of semi-coagulated blood. IQth.—A drop or two of odourless serum. 11th.—No pain; the cloth from the stump was cut up and sent to the different resident medical officers, to be examined micro scopically for pus. Various opinions were given. This was the whole progress of the case. Patient states that from the first day till the 17th day he never felt the slightest twinge of pain. There were never more than two or three drops of colourless odourless serum. On the 17th day the patient, of his own will, tried to walk on the bare stump, and made it bleed a drop or two. Since then it has been dressed simply with dry lint, and patient left for the Convalescent House on 25th February, still maintaining that, except during his unfortunate walk, he never felt any pain whatever. His pulse never rose above 80, nor had he the slightest trace of fever. 4. D. M., get. 29, had suffered for many years from enlargement of the tibia with central abscess. For this Mr Syme trephined his tibia on 16th Janumy, and after boring through nearly an inch of very dense bone evacuated about a teaspoonful of foetid curdy pus. Profuse and very foetid suppuration followed. On the fourth day the patient became wildly delirious, with a dry tongue, and a pulse varying from 120 to 140. This continued for a week, till his case seemed almost hopeless. Osteomyelitis had obviously attacked the whole medullary canal, and a great part of the dense bone was dead. The ankle-joint was opened into. On the 27th his condition slightly improved, and his tongue was a little better, but he had a distinct