Lectures on the American eclectic system of surgery / by Benjamin L. Hill.

  • Hill, Benjamin L. (Benjamin Lord), 1813-1871.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the American eclectic system of surgery / by Benjamin L. Hill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    fame. There is no situation where knowledge seems more divine, than where it steps in between death and disease, and snatches the victim from the former by superseding the latter. Every medical man should know when to take the responsibility of such interference, and be able to do it, whenever necessary. We hold that no man is morally justified in practicing medicine, without such a knowledge of anatomy and operative Surgery, as to qualify him to operate in every case of emergency. Still we can not but condemn the ambitious eagerness of some old, as well as young Surgeons, to cut, in preference to resorting to more rational as well as humane measures; and we desire, as far as can be, to correct that wondering ignorance of society, which perpetuates the evil by with- holding the greater meed of approbation, which is due to the conserva- tive Surgeon, and often bestowing patronage and applause upon skillful but reckless operators, who really deserve the severest censure. The active aid of operative Surgery, remarks Professor Gibson, when speaking of the efficacy of general remedial means in exostosis, instead of being regarded with honor, and as an exercise of skill, often ostentatious and unnecessary, is frequently employed before general remedies are even tried, and resorted to under circumstances where bene- fit can not be expected to result. Whoever attends a European Infirmary will be struck with the diversity and multiplicity of operations, per- formed upon the most trivial occasions. Will it be credited, that the illustrious father of American Surgery, during a practice both hospital and private, of forty years, and more extended than that of any individ- ual of our country, has very seldom had to resort to amputation? It may be asked what became of his patients ? I answer, they have been cured by general and local means.—\_lnstilutes Surgery, volume II, p. 429.] These and similar admonitions from humane and reflecting minds have not been without their effect on the public, as well as a part of the pro- fession. Among the more striking changes of public sentiment that mark the present age, a growing jealousy has of late been observable as to all the supposed necessary evils of medicine and medical means. The blood-stained hand of the learned Surgeon has begun to excite the same aversiou, as the bloody hand of the laureled soldier. The former may be a philanthropist, and the latter a pat.iot; but each is suspected of being too proud of his prowess to be over scrupulous as to the occasion for its display. Intelligent people generally seek the opinion of those who are nut professed operative Surgeons, before consigning their limbs and risking their lives, or those of their friends, in the hands of opera- tives. The fact that so many have been saved from the knife, after having been condemned to its ''tender mercies, has had its due effect. It is now known in many parts of the country that there are American