Discourses on the nature and cure of wounds / by John Bell.

  • John Bell
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Discourses on the nature and cure of wounds / by John Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/518 (page 7)
    opinion by their practice ; for very generally in that lpace of time, the whole, or a part at lead, of the ex- pofed bone, was thoroughly ipoiled. Ihefe were a few of the many midakes committed daily by the older furgeons; who were contented with their theories about incarning, and cicatrizing of wounds, too proud of their own art, and too little inclined to follow the llmple ways of nature. It was in the time ofdifcuffing this very point of am- putation, and efpecially in debating the fubjedl of flap operations, that this difcovery of the univerfal doctrine of adhefion began. The French furgeons had declared, not only that their flap amputation procured an eafy and perfect cure, but they affirmed that often in three days, the fleffi of fuch a dump had adhered. To this O’Halleran replies, with a rudeneis and ignorance quite unparalleled, “ I would afk,” fays he, “ the mod ignorant tyro in our profeffion, whether he ever faw, or heard even, of a wound, though no more than one inch long, united in fo diort a time ?” “ Thefe tales are told,” he adds, “ with more confidence than veracity; healing by inofculation, by the drd inten- tion, by immediate coalefcence without fuppuration, is merely chimerical and oppodte to the rules of na- ture.” This was the adertion of O’Halleran, himfelf an excellent and mod judicious furgeon ; and all the bed furgeons of the prefent day, as Mr. White, Broom- field, &-c. have followed his dotdrine and practice ; deeding their circular dumps with rolls of fine linen, laid within the circle of the dump; and when they amputate by the dap operation, they drefs the dap and A iiij