Copy 1

A critical enquiry into the present state of surgery.

  • Samuel Sharp
Date:
1761
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A critical enquiry into the present state of surgery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    244/336 (page 232)
    by Practice. Either the Inflances are few in which the Operation is expedient, or they have been almoft entirely overlooked ; fince it is certain that few Men have perforriied it. But it muft be underflood, that I do not fpeafc of that Species of Empyema, where the Lungs adhere to the Pleura, and produce the Impoflumation externally between the Ribs; byt of that, where the Abfcefs of the Lungs when it breaks, difcharges its Contents into the Cavity of the Thorax. Empyemas of the firft Kind are frequent, and every Surgeon has feen them ; but the other Cafe is ryore rare, or at leaf!: is generally thought to be fb. Indeed Abfceffes of the Lungs without an evident Adhelion are very common, as we fee ip Coyfumptive People, who fpit up every Day the Matter generated in the Abfcefs \ but in this In fiance, either the Abfcefs may not have emptied itfelf into the Thorax; or if it has, the Matter is abforbed again through the Opening of the Abfcefs; and in both Examples, the Operation for the Empyema wpuld avail little, as there is no Quantity of extravafited Matter lopfe in the Thorax. This Difpofition of the Lungs to caff off the Matter generated either on their Surface, or in their Subfiance, has inclined many Stir-