The history and statistics of ovariotomy, and the circumstances under which the operation may be regarded as safe and expedient : being a dissertation to which the prize of the Massachusetts Medical Society was awarded, May 1856 / by George H. Lyman.

  • Lyman, George H. (George Hinckley), 1819-1891.
Date:
1856
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history and statistics of ovariotomy, and the circumstances under which the operation may be regarded as safe and expedient : being a dissertation to which the prize of the Massachusetts Medical Society was awarded, May 1856 / by George H. Lyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    DISSERTATION. In tracing the History of Ovariotomy, we find that extensive incisions into the abdominal parietes, similar to those em- ployed in modern times for the removal of diseased ovaria, were known to the ancient Jews, who, according to Dr. Mansfeld, of Brunswick,1 operated in this way for removal of the uterus ; and the statement by Morand,2 on the authority of Heyschius, that Gyges and Andramites, kings of Lydia, were in the practice of qualifying certain of their unfortunate female subjects for the duties of eunuchs, by removing or destroying their ovaries, is constantly re- peated by more recent authors. This practice, it seems, is still continued in certain parts of India. Dr. Roberts says, that, in 1841, he examined three female eunuchs, called Hedjera, in whom the atrophy of the ovaries was effected by puncturing them with needles, impregnated with some unripe vegetable juice.3 In more recent times, however, abdominal section for the removal of the uterus or its contents, for extra-uterine preg- nancy, for intussusception, tumors, &c, appears to have been first revived in the sixteenth century. In Sue's Histoires des Accouchements, Paris, 1786, is an account of successful 1 Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour. vol. xxv. 1826. 2 Mlmoires de l'Acad. de Chirurg. t. ii. p. 319. * Tilt, Dig. of Women, Loud. 1853, p. 27.