Modern surgery as a science and an art : the oration delivered before the Medical Society of London on the ninety-ninth anniversary, May 6th, 1872 / by Frederick James Gant.

Frederick James Gant

Date:: 1872

Credit: Modern surgery as a science and an art : the oration delivered before the Medical Society of London on the ninety-ninth anniversary, May 6th, 1872 / by Frederick James Gant. 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.

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$probable that this priucij)le of substitute-disease may yet be destined to further development, and to achieve yet greater triumphs in the history of Preventive Medicine ? Or, again, if any given human being has already undergone a certain disease once, or must naturally pass through such ordeal once in the course of his life; may not that exaction be sufficient for at least that particular mode of bodily suffering ? An approach, to this subsequent exemption would seem to be vouchsafed by the non-recurrence, in general, of any eruptive fever in the same individual; and preventive Surgery has already made an attempt in the same direction. Thus, syphilisation, or repeated inoculation of the syphilitic virus to saturation of the system, was a process designed not only to cure constitutional syphilis, if possible, in a far shorter period than would otherwise be inevitable, but also for the purpose of preventing a recurrence of this disease. It is thus that Professor Boeck, of Christiania, has humanely advocated this principle of prevention, thoiigh apparently, at present, without much unequivocal success. Turning from external causes, to the origin and progress of disease in the body, we observe Modern Surgery assuming a preventive character by the arrest of diseased conditions, in various tissues, before spreading to parts continuous or ad- joining. This was clearly the aim of Sir Benjamin Brodie^s pathological observations resjoecting diseases of the joints, in relation to their treatment,—to discover the morbid changes while still in an early stage, and the symptoms by which the incipient disease is indicated. While the prevention of disease has gradually become one of the leading aspects of Modern Surgery, a spirit of Conser- vatism has arisen to guide and regulate our surgical treatment. The surgical tendency of the age is to Conservative Operations. Given the necessity for some surgical operation for the removal of any part of the body, in consequence of otherwise incurable disease or injury. Conservatism inclines always towards the least act of sacrifice. Instead, therefore, of the sweeping operation of total separation or amputation, a compromise is sought, whereby the original constitution and frame, as from the ]\Iaker^s hand, may be kept as nearly as possible in its normal condition of structural and functional integrity. This,$