Considerations on the circulation of the blood : with special reference to counter-iritation [i.e. irritation], and to the effect of increased atmospheric pressure / by Andrew H. Smith.

  • Smith, Andrew H. (Andrew Heermance), 1837-1910
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Considerations on the circulation of the blood : with special reference to counter-iritation [i.e. irritation], and to the effect of increased atmospheric pressure / by Andrew H. Smith. 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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    present day is to confine our investigations too exclusively to the domain of the microscope and the test-tube, to the neglect of other studies equally important. The mechanics of medi- cine deserves to be elevated into'a distinct branch of medical science, and offers a field for the display of the liighest quali- fications for scientific investigation. Art. II.—TTie Origin of Cocsarean Section / an Historical SJcetch. By C. F. Eodenstein, M. D., Westchester, IS;. Y. SuEGERY is an art which gives no scope to tlie exercise of the imaginative faculty. Within its domain romance and poetry find no material for idealization. The operation for cataract and the Csesarean section form, perhaps, the only ex- ceptions to this remark. The exact investigations of modem ophthalmology have robbed the first of the avt^e and mystery which attended its performance, when learned Arabians and less learned mountebanks travelled through Euro]De and re- stored sight to the rayless orbs of the blind; but to the second cling still some of the vague terrors inspired by surgical pro- cedures not perfectly understood, some of the mythological mists of the ages in which it is said to have originated. In fact, there is something in the very circumstances under which this operation, is performed, which excites an undefined dread. The very process of parturition is shrouded, to the unprofessional mind, I know not in what halo of sacredness and mystery. When labor is difficult or obstructed, the inter- est is heightened; and that mingled sentiment of dread and anxiety, of alternate doubt and hope, culminates when, in the ]nost desperate crisis of dystocia, Csesarean section is performed, as the last resource of obstetric art. Sometimes this heroic inteiTention is adopted to save two lives from impending destruction; sometimes to save a mother after her child has already been sacrificed to her safety; some- times the dead body of a woman is opened to deliver a living child, thus literally rescuing life from the embrace of death. An operation so grand in its simplicity, so brilliant in its success, so mysterious in its disasters, is well calculated to un-
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