Quarterly report of the Edinburgh Surgical Hospital, from May to August 1829 / [James Syme].

  • Syme, James, 1799-1870
Date:
[1829]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quarterly report of the Edinburgh Surgical Hospital, from May to August 1829 / [James Syme]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    small walnut, the treatment by seton was thought preferable to injection. A silk thread was passed through the anterior parie- tes, and allowed to remain until sufficient irritation seemed to be induced. The subsequent process of recovery was similar to that which occurs after injection. (o.) The nsevus was seated in the neck. It was round, of considerable thickness, and the size of a crown piece. It had repeatedly bled so profusely as to alarm the mother for the safety of her child, which was in other respects, though one of twins, healthy and thriving. A long needle, slightly curved, was passed transversely under the base of the disease, and two threads introduced by it were then tied, so as to include one-half in each. As a small part of the disease slipped behind the thread, a needle was thrust under it, and held there until the ligature was drawn tight. No trou¬ blesome accident succeeded. The sloughs separated, and the ulcerated surface healed under the use of lotions containing the sulphate of copper, and the acetate of lead. (/-•) T ’he patient, who came from Glasgow, laboured under a complete obstruction of the right nostril, though the anterior and upper part of the nasal cavity, so far as could be seen or felt, seemed nearly free. Having carefully groped backwards with a pair of small forceps, and extracted the small portion of poly¬ pous substance that was encountered, I at length detached a large round tumour which had hung backwards. It fell down into the pharynx, whence the patient spat it up, and was instantly relieved from all the annoyance he had previously suffered. A similar occurrence happened a short time before in private. In operating on a gentleman, whose nostril was completely obstruct¬ ed, I found the passage so extremely narrow, that the smallest instrument could with great difficulty be either introduced or slightly opened, and I was about to despair of removing any thing more than a few small fragments, when the patient sud¬ denly ejected from the pharynx a round mass fully the size of a walnut, and instantly felt quite well. (q.) The patient was a respectable married man ; a mason by trade. He applied on account of a great number of large war¬ ty excrescences which completely surrounded the anus, and pre¬ sented a precisely similar appearance to that observed in ag¬ gravated cases of warty growths from the prepuce, and genital organs of the female. He had suffered great distress from the disease, and latterly was confined to bed by it. The excision of the excrescences was effected by means of curved scissors, readily but not very speedily, as they occupied a considerable breadth of surface all the way round.