Introductory address, delivered at the opening of the session at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, October 1st, 1880 / by Walter Pye.

  • Pye, Walter, 1853-1892.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address, delivered at the opening of the session at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, October 1st, 1880 / by Walter Pye. 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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    enough. And the amount of ground is extra- ordinary which twenty or thirty cases, medical or surgical, will cover if taken carefully. A case goes on from week to week, and the first interest taken in it is only too apt to pall, but if you stick to recording the ups and downs of its course faithfully, believe me you will be well repaid in the end. Especially valuable to you will be those cases which you will have to study in death as well as in life—those cases in which, on the post-mortem table, you will have the opportunity either of establishing your preconceived notions, or else of reading there for the first time the answer to some obscure problem hitherto unsolved, perhaps hitherto unsolvable. And as I urge you to lose no opportunity ot attending the post-mortem room, so in the operat- ing theatre, do not let your opportunities slip. Do not, for example, be satisfied with seeing an amputation of the thigh performed, but pay especial attention to the condition of the limb which has been condemned. The understanding the steps of the operation itself is a small thing compared with comprehension of the reasons for which it has been done. Thus your work in the wards should be done patiently and methodically ; you cannot afford to let any of it pass, for you should feel all the time that you are placed in conditions for acquiring experience that you will very likely never be placed in again. And you must bear in mind,