Addresses and other papers / by William Williams Keen.

  • William Williams Keen
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Addresses and other papers / by William Williams Keen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    requiring reopening of the wound or, in some cases of re¬ peated hgemorrhage, a ligation of the vessel higher up in the limb, or an amputation. Sometimes, as in Lord Nelson’s case, these ligatures on large vessels did not come away for many years. What we did not have in those days was almost more noticeable than what we did have. Among our blessings, however, were ether and chloroform. Ether, it will be remembered, was first used publicly in the Massachusetts General Hospital on October 16, 1846; chloroform was discovered by Sir James Simpson in the following year, 1847. Yet you will be surprised when I tell you that Lord Roberts records, in his “Forty-one Years in India,” that in the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, ten and eleven years after the discovery of chloroform and ether, there were no anaes¬ thetics to alleviate the sufferings of those heroes who were wounded during the terrible siege of Delhi.* We had, how¬ ever, no antiseptics, for antisepsis was as yet even undreamed of; hence erysipelas, pyaemia, and hospital gangrene were rife. Many a time have I had the following experience— indeed, it was fully expected and looked upon as unavoid¬ able: A poor fellow whose leg or arm I had amputated a few days before would be getting on as well as we then expected; that is to say, he had pain, high fever, was thirsty and restless, but was gradually improving, for he had what we looked on as a favorable symptom,—an abundant discharge of pus from his wound. Suddenly, overnight, I would find that his fever had become markedly greater, his tongue dry, his pain and restlessness increased, sleep had deserted his eyelids, his cheeks were flushed, and on removing the dress¬ ings I would find the secretions from the wound almost dried up and what there were were watery, thin, and foul- * “ Anaesthetics and antiseptics were then unknown [!]; consequently few of the severely wounded recovered and scarcely a single amputation case recovered” (Lord Roberts, vol. i, p. 195).