Historical steps of modern medicine : an address delivered before the St. Andrews Medical Graduates' Association at the annual session held on December 2, 1871 / by Henry Day.
- Day, Henry, 1814-1881.
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Historical steps of modern medicine : an address delivered before the St. Andrews Medical Graduates' Association at the annual session held on December 2, 1871 / by Henry Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
21/24 (page 21)
![subject therefore as being, like some others, one of hope, rather than the realisation of a fact accomplished and bequeathed to those who may follow us. As, for a postcript, the lover cherishes his choicest words of admiration] or trust, so, under the section of surgery I retain to the last a reference to the prime surgical work of this era: I mean the advance made in the introduction of Ovariotomy as a surgical cure. That out of a hundred women, who thirty years ago would have died had they suffered from the disease known as ovarian dropsy, seventy should now be saveable by the interposition of the art of the surgeon, is a triumph unmistakably grand. Let us assume that the operation shall not last!—let us assume that in the progress of physiological science, some simpler cure than that of laying open the abdominal cavity and removing the ovarian cyst, and firing the pedicle of the cyst, shall be discovered!—that discovery itself will not conceal the greatness of the operation I name. For, to prove, as it has proved, how the viscera of the abdomen may, in extremis, be exposed and explored, is, in itself, a sufficient event to fix the attention of the after ages. Meantime too, while we wait for new light, we have the practical results of the operation for our own satisfaction, and for our warrant to the wiser men, the magisters of the future, that the intrepid skill of our surgeons, who perfected this operation, was guided by the steadiest principles of art. It is to all of us, their fellow-workers, an honour, to them a pure, an enduring fame. Let me, herewith, pass from the field of surgery of our time. The workers in it have left two relics at least—namely, subcutaneous incision and ovariotomy—'that shall be long remembered, and shall wear enduringly, as historical steps of modern physic. One other subject relating to the work of our time has vet to be considered. It is the greatest work of all, the most universal in its application, the most difficult in its advancement, the most useful m its perfection. You will anticipate me in thought ’ere I name this work as. the science of Therapeutics. Such scope is there1 for observation in this field, I am embarrassed with the richness of the prospect. mess ol The old methods of research, the old methods of practice, in the therapeutical department, are all fast dying out, and what was once obscunty in fact, and symbolism in appearance, is being supplemented](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22443265_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
