Volume 1

The Hunterian oration : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 15th, 1897 / by Christopher Heath.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian oration : delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 15th, 1897 / by Christopher Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/40 page 31
    ligature, thereby conforming to the practice of most of the ovariotomists who have succeeded him. Probably the part of the operation in which Spencer Wells made the most important innovation, and in which he took a natural pride, was the bringing together of the two peritoneal edges of the wound. In his lectures, delivered in this theatre in 1878, he pointed out how, by the sacrifice of a few rabbits, he had been able to prove that immediate union of the divided serous membrane followed upon the proper application of sutures, with a marked improvement in his results when the practice was adopted upon patients. ‘These few and necessary experiments caused him to be abused by that small body of selfish enthusiasts who ignorantly strive to withstand the progress of scientific knowledge, much as Mrs. Partington resisted the waves of the Atlantic. Spencer Wells did not, however, confine his attention to diseases of the ovaries and their treatment, but took an active part in that advance in abdominal surgery which has been such a remarkable feature of the last twenty years. The removal of uterine tumours, and then of the uterus itself, early engaged his attention, and in a work published in 1885 he gave his experience in this then novel department of surgery. He was the first British surgeon to remove an enlarged spleen, in 1865, and though all his three cases unfortunately were fatal, the operation proved successful in the hands of Péan two years later, and from his case we may date.the introduc- tion of splenectomy into modern surgery. Sir Spencer Wells for many years filled the honorable post of Surgeon to the Queen’s Household, resigning only last year on account of advancing age. In 1883 he received the honour of a baronetcy, which his position for years as one of the leading surgeons of the day’ fully justified. Sir Spencer Wells was a highly cultivated gentleman, who spoke several foreign languages and had been able to indulge his predilection for foreign travel, so that he
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3