The ninth report of the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton : for the quarterly term ending Dec. 31st, 1838 / By the Rev. Peter Parker, M.D.

  • Peter Parker
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ninth report of the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton : for the quarterly term ending Dec. 31st, 1838 / By the Rev. Peter Parker, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    »ity, which was the more necessary as the patient had by long delay become very feeble. She was just able to be lifted from her bed to the table. A medical gentleman who saw her on Monday, learning that it was proposed to amputate the arm on Wednesday, expressed his opinion, that she would not live to see the day. It was noticeable a few days before this, that the pulse at the bend of the right arm was only 90, while it was 112 in the wrist of the other; but the mo- mentum was proportionably greater in the right arm. On the 12th December, during the time of the attempted execution of an opium dealer, and the consequent riot, in the front of the factories, all was quiet at the hospital, and the operation was performed. The arm was removed by the flap operation, four inches above the elbow. An opiate was administered half an hour before the time for operation, also five grains of blue pill, and ten of ext. of rhubarb. The patient after her decision was fully formed contemned the idea of pain, and at the moment of sawing the bone inquired when that part of the process would take place. She had a comfortable night following, and the bowels were moved in the morning, her pulse being 114, and rather feeble. Her appetite soon became strong, and on the 15th was indulged quite to the jeopardy of her health, when, being called to her, the abdo- men was found much distended, the pulse accelerated, skin hot, and respiration very difficult. An ounce of castor oil was immediately administered. The next morning she was again comfortable. On the 16th, the arm was dressed, and the lips of the wound had united to a considerable extent by fiist intention. On the 17th about noon I found her with a bowl of oily sausages, which she was devouring even without rice. When told not to eat them, she was much dis- pleased, and quite lost her temper. For a few days she had diarrhea, which yielded to the effects of opium, hydrargyrum cum creta, and castor oil. On the 14th day after the operation the ligature came away, the wound being healed except at the point of the ligature. From the moment the arm was removed, the patient began to be con- valescent, and she declared, she was more comfortable the night after the operation than on that preceding. The examination of the forearm evinced the propriety of the am- putation above the elbow. The disease evidently commenced in the marrow of the radius and near its head, and then involved the bones and soft parts in the common disease. The radius and ulna were diseased as far as the elbow, the marrow having assumed a brownish hue. The tumor was surrounded by a plate of bone the thickness of Jh* pericranium, which being sawed through exposed a. mass of maU
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