Observations in surgery / by Benjamin Travers, jun.

  • Travers, Benjamin, 1783-1858.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations in surgery / by Benjamin Travers, jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that the organization of new deposits is very rapid in scrofula, and also that, whereas they are com- posed of a very fragile material, they easily break up, and are at times quickly re-absorbed. In the most promising cases, if the treatment is too active, or embraces the use of any substance oifensive to the stomach and bowels, neither resolution, nor absorption, nor organization of a healthy and last- ing kind will be obtained, but a quantity of waste and broken-down material will remain to be elimi- nated : hence arise suppurations and ulceration. The rationale of a method which interrupts, or altogether anticipates, an act of disorganization in a joint, which invites absorption in glandular enlarge- ments, and fills the bed of a corneal ulcer with healthy lymph, is one and the same at all times. Mercury will do this if properly administered at the right time; iodine also exhibits the same powers in a less degree: but it should always be borne in mind, that parts are easily broken down, and the blood soon impoverished, under the too liberal employment of either remedy; so that the patient cannot be too closely watched when submitted to their operation for any lengthened period. Finally, all experienced surgeons never omit to lay the greatest stress upon measures which affect the regulation of diet, repose, and temperature; of which I shall only observe in this place, that no medicine can be expected to produce the smallest salutary result which is not backed and counte-