The medical annals of Maryland, 1799-1899 : prepared for the centennial of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty / by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D.
- Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell
- Date:
- 1903
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The medical annals of Maryland, 1799-1899 : prepared for the centennial of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty / by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
902/968 page 832
![that I can give you no positive information. My impression is that he had operated much more frequently than had his son, probably several hundred times, and that his death rate was about one in twenty-five.” Dr. Edward F. Milholland, who was Resident Physician at the Baltimore Infirmary from 1860 to 1864, writes: “I have read Dr. Gorter’s letter, and my knowledge of Dr. A. P. Smith’s work in that line is correctly reported. I agree with him in the statements that he has made. In reference to the work of Dr. N. R. Smith I do not believe that he ever kept a record of the number of cases that he operated upon. He must have had several hundred cases. During my residence at the old Baltimore Infirmary, as Resident Physician from 1860 to 1864, he had each year five or six cases, and all were successful. Ido not recall a death after his lithotomy work. During those years, of course, he had cases in private practice, and I never heard of any failures. He always operated with as much self-confidence as a practitioner would vaccinate a baby. The only after treat- ment consisted in keeping the wound clean, and frequently changing the bed linen. Sometimes there was a troublesome hemorrhage after the cut, but the patients always rallied. A silver canula was passed through the incision into the bladder to permit the flow of urine, but was removed after two or three days. His external cut was always bold and free; the beak of his knife then entered the groove of the staff, and in a moment he had penetrated the bladder. The removal of the stone almost instantly followed. His manipulations were dex- terous and rapid.” Mrs. Alan P. Smith writes: “Alan had after that time [1. e., the report of his fifty-two successful cases] quite a number of successful cases before losing a patient and am under the im-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31349146_0902.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
