Remarks on a treatise on the rectum [by James Syme] / [A.W. Cockburn].

  • Cockburn, Archibald William, 1814-1862.
Date:
[1838?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on a treatise on the rectum [by James Syme] / [A.W. Cockburn]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It is amusing to hear Professor Syme talking of the “ credit of surgery.” Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that he excises knee-joints and trephines over the longitudinal sinus ? Was it for the “ credit of surgery” that he proposed to remove entirely a man’s tongue, and was it for the “ good of humanity” that he raised the poor sufferer’s hopes by the unqualified promise of a cure, and then dashed them to the ground by confessing his inability to attempt what he had promised to perform ? Was it for the “ credit of surgery” that he removed part of a cancerous lip, and one of a chain of glands involved in the disease, when he himself admitted the disease to be incurable ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that he still continues to perform the operation of lithotomy, — an operation which he does not understand, and which annually sends more than two-thirds of his victims to the grave ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that death very frequently reveals cal¬ culi in bladders when he has declared there are none present ? or that some are left when others are removed ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery ” that his luxations of the humerus are unreduced, until they apply to abler and better surgeons ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that his mistakes, publicly committed, are attempted to be remedied in private ? — that his ward doors are bolted when some improvements are made upon some previously performed operation ? and that the success attending the private improvement is allowed to pass for the successful result of the first operation, and the students and the pub¬ lic gulled ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery ” that his fractures of the olecranon are dismissed as slight bruises, and with the fracture un¬ discovered? Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that his amputations are a byeword, his use of the saw a standing joke, amongst the pro¬ fession at large ? Was it for the “ credit of surgery,” or for the “ good of humanity,” that he kept a female patient’s mind upon the rack of uncertainty and dread, on the eve of a formidable and dangerous operation, for which, when she was at last fortified and prepared, and her hour had come, personal pique, and miserable jealousy of a better surgeon than himself, delayed her for a future day — added cruel sus¬ pense to mental misery, and drew tears from hope deferred ? Is it for the “ credit of surgery” that his well-known want of candour renders his reports incredible? Was it for the “credit of surgery” that he bought a chair in the University, and still pockets the heavy fees wrung by compulsion from the student, who not only wastes, through compulsion, his time at the prelections, but pays with a sigh the cruel tax upon his scanty purse? So much, and more, has Professor Syme done to support the credit of surgery, and the good of humanity ; — would, for the sake of both, that any of the above statements were exaggerated ! PRINTED BY STEVENSON & CO. THISTLE STREET, EDINBURGH.
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