An inquiry into the present methods of performing the operation of lithotomy.

  • Shaw, John, 1792-1827.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the present methods of performing the operation of lithotomy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1 4G Inquiry into the prexent Methods is probably the principal source of clanger in all operations of lithotomy, let us enter fully into the question of how it is to be avoided. But we must, as anatomists, be allowed first to inves- tigate how far Mr. Pattison is entitled to the claim which he makes, of the discovery of a new fascia connected with the prostate. The surgeons in America are neither inclined to give Mr. Pattison the merit of correctness in his anatomy, nor the credit of having made a discovery. Dr. Jameson, of Baltimore, ) very clearly demonstrates that Mr. Pattison has been incorrect | in his anatomy, and that he has deceiv'ed himself, in consequence 1 of the particular manner in which he conducted the dissection. j But those gentlemen are not so well convinced, that there is not | some discovery ; for Mr. Pattison, in reply to one of his critics, J says, “ It was really and truly to me a discovery; it was consi- | dered as such, by all the professional friends with whom I con- | versed on the subject in Edinburgh, London, and Paris.” As | he ranks among Ins London and Parisian friends, Mr. Cooper : and M. Dupuytren, we cannot be surprised that his opponents should have some hesitation in conceiving, that those gentlemen could have allowed it to be a disco^^ery, if it had been before ! noticed. Some of his critics have brought against him the work of Mr. Colies, but this Mr. Pattison answ'crs by saying that he ; acknow'lcdges in his Essay, that he believes that anatomist had | seen the same fascia, although he drew no deductions from . what he saw. Another opponent brings the 5th N°. of Mr. C. Bell’s Surgical Reports, In which he has given a plate of the same fascia, taken from the thesis of his pupil Dr. Gardiner. To this Mr. Pattison replies, “ 1 have not been able to obtain a sight of * this number of Mr. Bell’s Reports, and can say nothing of the | fascia alluded to by Dr. Gardiner, but this will in no way mili- I tate against my claim, as the work quoted w'as not published until eighteen months after I made public, as a discovery, the prostate fascia.” Mr. Pattison is here in an error regarding the date of this plate. The drawing was made in the dissecting ’ room of Great Windmill-street, in 1813, and it was printed in the same year by Dr. Gardiner in his ])robationary essay, on entering into the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Although Mr.Pattison was then in Glasgow', he might not have had an opportunity of seeing the thesis, but it is rather curious that lie should in the investigation of this subject have omitted to e.’ca- mine the splendid book from which the following quotation is ] taken, and which was published before the Memoir of Scarpa, j which Mr. Pattison informs us led him to make the discovery. “ Fig. III. Plate I.—This figure c.xhibits the fascia which