Volume 1

A system of surgery / by J. M. Chelius; translated from the German and accompanied with additional notes and observations by John F. South.

  • Maximilian Joseph von Chelius
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of surgery / by J. M. Chelius; translated from the German and accompanied with additional notes and observations by John F. South. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    186/1006
    The .study and practice of Surgery are connected witli great difficulty. The dexterity and exactitude with which surgical operatioas must be per- formed, can only be attained by long practice on the dead body, the ojDportunity for which is rare; and still rarer the perseverance neces.sary to overcome the various disagreeables therewith connected. How much does this practice on the dead body still leave imperfect when we have to meet operations on the living! In how many instances does the life of the patient depend momentarily on the hand of the operator; the restlessness,, of the patient, his cries, a peculiar sensation to which no practitioner is a stranger in operating on the living subject, and particularly in the begin- ning of his career, easily disturb his needful equanimity, render him anxious and incapable of perfecting his work with firmness and certainty. Therefore are we not surprised on reading the open confession of tlie great Haller. ^^Etsi chirurgicB cathedra per septemdecim annos mihi con- credita fait, etsi in cadaveribus difficillimas administrationes chirurgicat frequenter ostendi, non tamen unquam vivum hominem incidere sustinui, nimis ne nocerem veritusP In the employment of surgical means the practitioner can only lie guided by the most perfect anatomical knowledge. That knowledge of the structure of our body, with which the general practitioner is content, is insufficient for the operator. He must be most intimately acquainted by careful dissection with the position of every part, its relations to others, and the variations which in this respect may occur, so that this definite knowledge may direct him in every moment of an operation. IMere descriptive anatomy is not sufficient for the surgeon without tliat comparative anatomy which is directed to physiology, and which has in \. view the early developmental periods of the several organs, by which alone' ■ a true insight into the nature of so many diseases is possible. All these difficulties connected with the acquirement and practice of Surgery, are sufficiently rewarded by the great superiority which, on the • other hand, the practice of them offers. In most cases where surgical as- j- sistance is necessary, the possibility of preserving the patient depends upon fs it: we must, therefore, in desperate cases take bold measures, and the advance of Surgery within the last few years in this respect, has raised SI our astonishment at the heroism of art, as well as at the immeasurable re- *• sources of nature. In this point of view has Marcus Aurelius Seve- rinus most correctly entitled his book on surgical diseases, Z>c J/crf/c/wa i Efficaci. The inadmissibility of dividing Medicine from Surgery is most ]«1- - pable, when we endeavour to determine the object of the latter, and the diseases comprehended within its boundaries, as it never can have a jier- fectly determined limit in opposition to the other. All diseases which are - cured by the application of mechanical means have been called surgical diseases, a definition at once too narrow and too comprehensive, as inMV so-called medical diseases are removed only by the application of surgical; means, and many diseases are evidently within the jurisdiction of Surg^i j which very often can be cured only by internal or external pharmaceutical u means. The distinction between external and internal diseases, which has d been established as the ground of division between Surgery and ]\Iedicinc, is entirely without meaning. , Let us endeavour to find out some general characters of dise^ w hf to a certain extent might legally serve as the law for a nosological di'*'