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.

    509/518 page 233
    8thly, To conclude 5 you mud never amputate dur- ing fever, pain, convulfion, great fwellmg of the limbs, but mod efpecially, during that high-colouied inflammation which betokens approaching gangrene there the difeafe is in the conditution ; by cutting 0 the limb, you do not cut off the difeafeThe gan- grene, in two days, lhows itfelf upon the dump, or the convulfions, which ceafe, perhaps, for a moment, return along with thofe dartings which follow ampu- tation ; and then follow a bending back of the body, locked jaw, and a very cruel death. This is the rea- fon of our performing amputation, either on the m- ftant, viz. before thefe terrible fymptoms have begun, or later, and after they have ceafed ; this is the foun- dation of Le Dran’s axiom, “ That where there is plainly a neceffity for lofing a limb, the fooner it is done the better.”—And my intention in this reafon- ing, and thefe remarks, is to edablifli this rule in your minds above all the feducdion of wonderful cales, which, though furely true, are yet mere exceptions, which it were better for you not to know, than trad to too much *. Here 1 feel it natural to exprefs my diflike, once more, of this unphilofophical way of fetting up parti- cular exceptions, which our colledions abound with, * I have mentioned my intention of giving a proper review of Bclguer’s opinions, of which fome of thefe ftri&ures may perhaps be thought in fome degree a refutation ; but yet I am fenfible that fuch an undertaking would be tedious to fome, and to many, I hope, quite fuperfluous.
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