Surgical experiences : the substance of clinical lectures / by Samuel Solly.

  • Samuel Solly
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical experiences : the substance of clinical lectures / by Samuel Solly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/676 (page 37)
    losis has taken place, and the poor little fellow, thougli much shortened in stature, and deformed, is a cheerful happy boy, whose principal fault, his mother tells me, is, that he will never be quiet, but is always running about. However, you shall see him for yourselves. [The patient was then brought into the theatre.] The opening of the abscess has not quite healed yet, and occasionally discharges a small quantity of pus, but he is quite free from pain in the spine. I have brought this case before you with a double object: first, as exhibiting the abscess which is occasioned by caries of the spine, and secondly, in order to encourage you in the treatment of this disease, even where the collection of matter is excessive, and the patient, worn almost to a skeleton, seems on the very verge of the grave. When I first saw this case I certainly believed it to be utterly hopeless, but of course I did not tell him so or his friends, and we have been rewarded for our trouble. Do not despair yourself, and do not take away hope from your patient. This case merely exhibits one of the many forms and directions which the abscess assumes in this disease; and as we have other cases in the house which illustrate the disease still further, such as psoas abscess, &c., I shall call your attention to these diseases at a future time, and we will now return to the consideration of angular curvature of the spine without suppuration. My attention was first called to the existence of such a disease by Sir B. Brodie. He described it to me under the title of rheumatic caries. I have seen two cases of it; both in the persons of medical men. They are both deeply interesting and instructive. In the first case, the true nature of the disease was not discovered until it had existed twenty years, and deformity had occurred ; it was then that I first saw him professionally, and learnt from Sir B. Brodie his opinion. Shortly after this I saw the second case, and from my know- ledge thus acquired I discovered its real nature, and had a consultation with that eminent surgeon regard- ing it. He confirmed the view I had taken; and the