On superstitions connected with the history and practice of medicine and surgery / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew.

Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On superstitions connected with the history and practice of medicine and surgery / by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    ] 66 well-authenticated cases of the union of the nose, ear, and other parts of the body, after being nearly separated from it, ‘Journal Hebdomadaire’ records two cases by Dr. Barthelemy in which union of the nose had taken place after complete separation. One was that of an officer at Lyons, in 1815, who had the end of his nose cut off in a duel by his adversary’s sabre. He put the severed portion in his pocket, kept it warm, returned home and sent for a surgeon, who replaced it, and adhesion wras effected. The other case, which is given on the authority of Dr. Regnault, was in a man who, in a fight with another, had part of his nose bitten off. He wrapped it up in his handkerchief, put it into his pocket, and for four or five hours only bewailed his loss. He was at length urged to apply to a surgeon, who steeped it in warm alcohol, placed the divided parts in contact, and in ten days they were reunited. —Portions of the ear have also been cut off, re-applied, and union effected. I know one case in which the entire ear was torn off, carefully replaced, and perfect adhesion procured.—A case no less extraordinary, perhaps more so, from the structure of the parts concerned, was related in the ‘ Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal’ for 1814. It occurred in Scotland, and is judicially attested. A finger was entirely cut off, replaced and united, suffering only the loss of the nail.—Mr. Peacock, a surgeon, at Liverpool, communicated to the editors of the ‘ London Medical Repository ’ (vol. vi, p. 368) a case of union of a finger, divided at the middle joint. A young gentleman, about ten years of age, cut through the middle joint of his forefinger with a carving knife so com- pletely, that the part of the finger beyond the division was hanging by a piece of the integument not thicker than a common probe. The ligaments and blood-vessels were completely divided. The severed parts were placed in apposition, and firmly retained by a splint. At the expiration of eight days, the parts had completely united. The natural warmth and sensation of the finger gradually returned, and the motion of the joint became as free and extensive as it had been before the accident.—Garengeot mentions a similar case effected by M. Bossu, a surgeon, at Arras, in which a boy cut off the third phalanx of the thumb of his left hand. He put the severed part into his pocket, and went to the surgeon, who washed it in warm wine, reapplied it, and was successful in obtaining complete adhesion.—These are, however, not more surprising than the preparations in the Hunterian museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, where a human tooth, upon being extracted, was immediately inserted into the comb of a
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