Experimental observations on the operation of lithotomy : with the description of a fascia of the prostate gland, which appears to explain anatomically the cause of urinal infiltrations, and consequent death / by Granville Sharp Pattison, esq. surgeon.

  • Pattison, Granville Sharp, 1791-1851.
Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experimental observations on the operation of lithotomy : with the description of a fascia of the prostate gland, which appears to explain anatomically the cause of urinal infiltrations, and consequent death / by Granville Sharp Pattison, esq. surgeon. 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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    originates from a two-fold principle,—a wish, to limit the extend- ed field of our inquiries, in order that we may devote our undi- vided attention to those subjects which are allowed by all, to be yet in an imperfected state,—and from the gratification our minds receive by the contemplation of the fact, that through the labours of our fathers some parts of our science at least, have become perfected. It is a desire which is honourable, yet it is one which should only be indulged with the most guarded caution. Let the student never for a moment forget, that he whose splendid discoveries in astronomy, they now so much admire, never laid aside one part of his science as fixed and confirmed, until its truth was established, on a basis which it was impossible either to ques- tion or overturn. If caution is necessary in guarding against the belief, that cer- tain departments of mathematical science are incapable of further illustration or improvement, it is ten thousand-fold more so, in relation to the arts. We can in the former arrive at undoubted and unanswerable conclusions; in the latter these are never to be obtained. Operative surgery is much more an Art than a Science, and consequently the student cannot be too sceptical in believing, that any of its operations are so perfected by the labours of preceding generations, as to be incapable of improvement. These observations, have been suggested to my mind from a recollection, that in relation to the operation of lithotomy, I began my professional career with the belief, that it had now arrived at a pitch of perfection, which no study nor investigation could possibly improve. Proceeding on this idea, I am aware that in my first operations, I not only operated improperly myself, but what is worse, that in my character of a Public Teacher, I incul- cated with all the warmth and enthusiasm of youth, as a perfected operation, one which later observation has demonstrated to me as the most dangerous which can be performed. As a student I had remarked, that in almost all the cases where death had fol- lowed the operation, considerable difficulty had been experi- enced, and very considerable force required in extracting the stone. An*' from a short-sighted and boyish observation, I threw from my consideration the recollection of the largeness of the stones ex-