Post-graduate lectures on the surgical treatment of deformities / by William Adams.

  • Adams, William, 1810-1900.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Post-graduate lectures on the surgical treatment of deformities / by William Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for some time dormant in Germany had it not been for the accidental circumstance of a distinguished member of our profession, Dr. Little, then a student at the London Hospital, and afflicted with a severe degree of contraction of the right foot, going over to Hanover to witness the results of the operation. The favourable impression made upon his mind by the numerous cases he saw, induced him to submit to the operation which Stromeyer performed in 1836 with complete success. On the 20th February, 1837, Dr. Little first divided the Achilles tendon in London. It is right to say, however, that in this country he had been anticipated by a celebrated English surgeon, the late Mr. Whipple of Plymouth, who divided the Achilles subcutaneously in May, 1836. Mr. Whipple himself informed me that when he first devised the operation he was not aware of its having been performed by Stromeyer, and that Sir Benjamin Brodie, to whom he wrote on the subject, discountenanced it, but Listen sanctioned it on the ground that the chances of benefit outweighed the probability of the patient being injured by its per- formance. This is another illustration of the same discovery being made independently in different countries, and sometimes not far from the same date. In the year 1838 the Eoyal Orthopaedic Hospital was founded by Dr. Little with the aid of rich and grateful patients, more especially Mr. Quarles Harris, whose daughter Dr. Little had cured. At the present time three Orthopaedic Hospitals exist in this me- tropolis. With the mode of performing the operation audita beneficial results in overcoming all muscular contrac-