On the recent progress of anatomy, and its influence on surgery : a lecture, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, at the evening meeting, on the 2nd of July, 1851 / by James Paget.

  • James Paget
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the recent progress of anatomy, and its influence on surgery : a lecture, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, at the evening meeting, on the 2nd of July, 1851 / by James Paget. 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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    portions of tlie tumours can be removed beforehand. So the examination of discharges from ulcers may be decisive of their character and suggestive of their appropriate mode of treatment. The examination also, by microscopic aid, of the contents of abscesses and cysts, may assist in the diagnosis of cases which, but for this microscopic help, would be yet more obscure. Again, the fact of the ordinary growth of bones by the ossification of fibrous tissues, (which could not be proved without the mi- croscope,) is applicable in surgery, by assuring us of the utility of periosteum in the repair of the diseases and inju- ries of bones; of its utility, I mean, for its own sake, as well as for the sake of the blood-vessels which it contains, and by means of which alone, it was supposed to administer to the nutrition of bones. So, the microscopic proof of the muscular structure of the arteries and veins, (though it has only confirmed the ti-uth maintained by Hunter,) and the proof of the proper character of their muscularity, and of their relation to various stimuli, have made us more sure of the uatural means for the arrest of hgemorrhage, and of the methods by vvhich we may assist them. I would be far from endeavouring to prove, that such ap- plications of the microscope as these are sufficient to justify the inculcation of a long and tedious course of study upon those who would practise surgery. Still, these facts must be allowed their proper weight; and whatever value they have should be added to that greater value, which is to be assigned to the improvement of the principles of surgery by the recent studies of anatomy. Let me, then, point out some of what I think we may call improvements in the prin- ciples of surgery which have been thus attained; and I will do this chiefly in relation to certain common expres- sions which we use, such as modes of organization, the constitutional origin of local diseases, and the like. Firit, in regard to the principle of the question whether we have any riglit to judge, by what we can observe in natural structures and their development, of what would be the progress of changes in any morbid structure. Doubtless, it has been always assumed that we may so judge ; but, except