Volume 1

The history of the lateral operation, or an account of the method of extracting a stone, by making a wound near the great protuberance of the os ischium ... first attempted by Frère Jacques ... and afterwards by Professor Rau ... With a postscript concerning the introduction and improvement of this method here in London / By James Douglas.

  • James Douglas
Date:
1726
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the lateral operation, or an account of the method of extracting a stone, by making a wound near the great protuberance of the os ischium ... first attempted by Frère Jacques ... and afterwards by Professor Rau ... With a postscript concerning the introduction and improvement of this method here in London / By James Douglas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    55/96 (page 47)
    difcovered on many Occafioiis ; and Rafhnefsand Want of Attention m performing his Operations. To the lad ol thefe were owing the Wounds he often made in the Bladder with his Staff] and the different Paffages by which he forced his Way into the Stone, with his Knife, Pilla¬ gers,. Forceps, &c. in the fame Perfon. Monfieur Mery has likewife made a Comparifon between Frere Jacques Method of Cutting, with what was commonly pradis'd at that Time but as all the Particulars, upon which that Comparifon is founded, have been partly already taken Notice of in this Hiifory, and the reft belong vto that of Marianusy it would be a ufelefs Repetition to infid any further upon it * Before we leave Monfieur Mery $ Book, it will be proper to infers that Part of the Letter mentioned to have been written to him from Or¬ leans by Monfieur Noel, which contains the Hidory of the Operations Frere Jacques perform'd there. Frere Jacques Way of Cutting, fays Monfieur Noely differs from that which is commonly in Ule, only in the Place where the Incifion is made ,• for indead of the Region of the Perinaum9 he begins his in the Fold of the Buttock, (ply de lafeffe) from thence he goes obliquely, di- reding his Knife as much as he can towards the Neck of the Bladder y but as the different Thicknefs of the Parts in different Subjects varies his Operation confiderably, it is no wonder that the Incifion is not al¬ ways in the fame Place of the Bladder ; efpecially fince it does not ap¬ pear that he has any certain Rule for this, but cuts fometimes higher* fometimes lower, fometimes further back, fometimes further forward j However, this new Operation never fucceeds better than when, either by Chance, or by the Dexterity of the Operator, the Incifion happens, to be in the Neck of the Bladder, Frere Jacques perforrr/d Eight Operations in this City, Five in the Hotel Dieuy and Three ellewhere. The Fird was upon a Man of Fifty Years of Age, and both Phyfickns and Surgeons who were prefent al¬ lured me that it was done with a great deal of Dexterity; the Stone wras much of the Size and Figure of an Egg, and none that faw it doubt¬ ed of the Succefs* However,