Lectures on nasal obstruction / by A. Marmaduke Sheild.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lectures on nasal obstruction / by A. Marmaduke Sheild. 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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    but briefly alluded to in the ordinary text-books on surgery. If you read the literature of this subject, you will be much con- fused by the wide divergences of opinion expressed on these and kindred matters. You may find that, while one authority attributes almost every known malady to intra-nasal troubles, another despises such ideas, and a third advises that obstructions in the nasal passage are of no consequence at all. So acute have been the differences of opinion that much acrimonious correspondence has ensued between advocates of different theories. In my student days we heard little or nothing of nasal obstructions, but now this class of maladies has obtained so prominent a place that the science of nose diseases is termed rhinology, and numbers of surgeons and physicians also practise almost entirely in surgical diseases of the nasal cavities. It is, therefore, a matter of great difficulty for me to speak to you authoritatively, without seeming to rudely differ from those who advance pronounced opinions either for or against intra-nasal operations. Extreme views in our profession, as in other matters, are generally wrong. Indiscriminate operating and universal ignoring of nasal complaints are equally erroneous. That surgeon will do the best for his patients, and ultimately for his own reputation, who is guided by the ordinary principles of surgery and pathology, apart from the follies and fancies of certain classes of patients. There are fashions in disease as in other matters. Those of you who may ultimately have the doubtful privilege to practise among what are termed “ smart ” or fashionable people, will be surprised at the fancies and crazes which temporarily exist with regard to this or that operation or malady. Influenza, dilatation of the heart, or adenoid growths are examples of fashionable diseases, which, singular as it may seem to you, certain patients are delighted to think they or their children are affected with, that they may pose as sufferers, and create sympathy or interest in their otherwise somewhat obscure
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