Lithotomy, its successes and its dangers : being a verbatim report, from shorthand notes, of an inquest held before the City Coroner / with a preface and commentary by a practical surgeon.

  • Beaney, James George, 1828-1891.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lithotomy, its successes and its dangers : being a verbatim report, from shorthand notes, of an inquest held before the City Coroner / with a preface and commentary by a practical surgeon. 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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    tion, as far as catching the stone, was done exceedingly well. He did not recollect the sketch. “The detective may have used the word supra- pubic without my hearing him, though I am certain I did not use the word to him. I may have used the word at the time of the operation, though I am not quite certain of that. Dr. Webb made a few other remarks to the Coroner, which were immaterial, and this finished his evidence. There is undoubtedly a considerable discrepancy between the evi- dence given by Dr. Webb in the first portion of his examination and his previous conversation with Detective Duncan ; but there will always be' a difference between statements made on oath, where every word must be weighed so as to be in strict accordance with what the witness believes to be the truth, and a gossiping conversation with a detective. As a rule, the detective will generally infer more than the witness intended to convey, and unintentionally deceive himself as to the true purport of the words used during the conversation. This discrepancy was rather unfortunate for the ends of the prosecution, for the Coroner distinctly stated that the inquest was held principally upon the faith of the statement of Dr. Webb, made by him to the detective officer. Had Detective Duncan exercised his vocation during a former gene- ration, he would have acquired more experience than to place too much reliance on the preliminary Statements of a non mi ricordo witness. James Campbell Duncan, one of the Resident Surgeons, and in' charge of the instruments of the Melbourne Hospital, deposed as to the lithotrites and scoops being in proper order at the time of the operation ;; that the scoops were not levers; they are used for drawing the stone to the opening of the bladder, and he might have added through the orifice of the wound made for the extraction of the' stone ; that the lithotrites were strong enough to crush road-metal. He himself had actually used a ten guinea lithotrite to crush a piece of granite i inches by and had' succeeded. This gentleman must be a careful guardian of delicate and expensive instruments, though the experiment is matter of small moment, as the public and Government pay all expenses. On being asked by Mr. Purves whether he was a surgeon, he replied, “ My degree is medical.- We don’t respect medical or surgical degrees here, we respect only a degree which makes us Surgeons or physicians;” meaning, of course, the degree conferred by the Melbourne University. The home authorities evidently have not the same respect for this degree as a surgical qualifi- cation, for they simply ignore it altogether. Surgeons taking a degree at the Melbourne University hold only local rank in Victoria, else- where they are unqualified-.