A proper reply to the serjeant surgeons [i.e. J. Ranby and C. Hawkins's] defence of their conduct at Chelsea Hospital [in 'The true account of all the transactions, etc.'] / [Samuel Lee].

  • Lee, Samuel, active 1743-1800
Date:
1754
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A proper reply to the serjeant surgeons [i.e. J. Ranby and C. Hawkins's] defence of their conduct at Chelsea Hospital [in 'The true account of all the transactions, etc.'] / [Samuel Lee]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    These Gentlemen fet out with informing the Reader, that-“ They long hefitated whether they ought, or, in¬ deed, whether it was worth their while to take any 'public Notice of the Charge which had been alledged again]} them, hoping that their Characters would Jkreen them from Sus¬ picion, and that Time, who generally does jujlice to Men, would prove their DefenderA-But finding at length that the former was rather too frail a Security for their Innocence, and the Verdidt of the latter was by no means in their Favour, it feems they were obliged at lad to put themfelves on their Defence at the Bar of the Public, and endeavour, by fome other method, to obtain that Acquittal which experience had fhev/n neither their Characters or Time had been able to procure them. However general and fuperficial our learned Ser¬ jeants Definition of a Rupture may be, yet, for bre¬ vity’s fake, we fhall agree with them,-“ That it is an external Swelling at the bottom of the Belly, eafily to be felt and feen, occafioned by the Gut or Caul, or loth, forcing their IVay, cut of their proper Situation within the Cavity of the Belly, through Openings naturally de¬ fined to give Pajjage to particular Vejfels only, which O- penings are fo tight and fnall in the right and natural - State of the Body as not to permit the Gut or Caul to pafs along with thefe Vejfels, and it is only from feme acciden¬ tal and preternatural dilating of them that the Rupture proceedsT --To which they fhould have added, and that it is only by fuch Applications as have a Power to contract this preternatural Dilatation that the Cure can be (Veiled. Now the only effential Queftion in this Controverfy is, whether Mr. Lee has difeovered any fuch Means of producing this Effect as were either un¬ known or unpraftifed by his Brethren of the ProfefTion •, to invalidate his Pretcnfions to any merit of this fort: while his Succefs remained doubtful, the Cure of a Eup-
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