The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 4, 1906, Page 14

ANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. 3 work nfide T steadiness to . relieves the: from which the ago couid not A wtune itrod und-r t n prob¥ng exist- re dition the of fe noticeable x I ree with s e agains s enjovment t I mean s sch the hu- and vet procced You s thi ion in forn wh new develop who has not re past three yea alsed to re- . portion of the e some bleeding or Tup- few years ly celebrated Dr. McEwen, re- —eminently the greatest the world has known, vis- © isco tured on his g tering the brain cavity, an h he performs with a dex- eons have pronounced . ka s. Very often the surgeon ¢ in for the removal of accu- ie a he would readily > as he would ex- ves wised nail from a patient’s . nuity of a late San Fran- v f o profession is grateful permitiing an entrance toid process, back of the ear - purpose of removing the cells < g rom that structure when*diseased. It is ssing J : o s tew months ago that the new; . st e o papers contained an ac g an eastern surgeon had sue- & : fted an and similar i e nose are becoming fre- v p 2 . )t an eye is a opera- & same is mentioned by riters medicine, who de- . ation step by step as it v s G today The pper and low jaws are often i t for malignant growths or tu- A " various kind and on every Au the downtown section of San - Y paane . o it Is a daily occurrence for den- to remove the teeth and supplant . ? s g of imitation masticators. 1 of the tongue, or portions & c er is not an infrequent pro- € 4 insurés the patient many s. An i { the operation is wholly ; . ’ w inches below the tongue the < on often finds occa to use his erfe d e iize for the relief of a patient suffocat- b of g on account of air not reaching the occulations due to @iph- progres de ir ] or croupous exudations, eancer or! N oratories similar affiictions thyroid gland, for years considered a irdispensable to the human N mechanism, is no longer avoided by the fr surgeon, who does not hesitate in remov- w ing it when he feels that his patient's » health is at stake, and seldom does a b es of goltre follow. c The larger arteries in the pleural and e * abdominal cavities are now ligated daily patie for aneuw ns, thus proving that the kir proper 4 former fear of intruding on these regions or 1 ings, both du of the omy a fallacy. It is a ¥ € operatior frequent operation to open the pleural £ room and the instru- cavity and evacuate a fluid, and even the e essings must be properiy pericardium is now invaded by the knife dis 1 perfeetly cle s must of the surgeon and emptied by him to persons presen 1 the prevent the heart from actually being The tdoo 5 is dr its own fluid he a ¥ s0 been removed by the knife s o from around the heart, which continues ion of those present on its beating course. seemingly invigor- inate in any way the fieJd ated by the loss of its unnaturai burden. stroduction of antiseptics, When healing appears to be beyond alre said, nas doubly as- possibility a surgeon will remove several tiled surgeon of the safety brokemw ribs and by ine comparatively while under his care, modest charge be imposes upon his pa- his assistants pro- tent for the operation the scientist will . demonstrate that he does not regard the work as more than an odinary tas! 1h ends of the ribs are a frequenuy removed irom the boay wi it es wupporent that they are & menace to life Ly their ddnger of per- ating the great cavily na then there is the liver, that ever oubl and uncertain vrgasi—that healtih ba cter, whose signals of dis- tress the owner is so often inclined to Rore. Th v time when the puilosopher of past would have s quickly counsenied 1o sever a ma liead from the body as to consider a propositi to interfere with his pa- tient’s liver. Now the surgeon uttack that o s willingly as he does ta other organs of the body The intestinal tract.has been invac ince days Dr. Nicholas Sean Dr. Murphy of Chicago published their procedures a guide to the profes sion. Any portion, from the. pyler orifice of the stomach to the most de nendent part of the large intestines, is Jow a legitimate subject for ope: and this particular work no long tracts mc than ordinary attention. Dr. Senu's mode of operation is by joining the several ends of the intes- tines side by side. closing the ends of continuity entircly -and making new openings laterally by the insertion of decalcified bone disks. Dr. Murphy made himself as immor- tal as the Greek surgeons by inventing the so-called Murphy button. In its two parts it is now commonly used for the purpose of fastening the portions of a severed bowel and then telescoped together in the manner of a shirt stud. By these methods cut intestines, made necessary by perforations by gunshot, cancerous growths, obstructions, gan- grenous and other complications, are repaired, generally to the ultimate sat- isfaction of the patient, who lives long nough to forget that this important of his anatomy has ever been re- \led to the critical eye of the sur- v geon. Althou crates, 400 years be- fore the an era, recommended various operations on the kidneys. and cested the possible necessity of re moving one of those organs for speci- fied causes, the strong religious oppo- sition to mutilation, to which I have al- ready referred, is given as one reason why he was not permitted to demon- strate his theories—theories that were centuries afterward proven by the modern and tactful surgeon’s cxperi ences, -Today the hospital records are filled with ¢ where a kidney has been taken out for pyelitis—an opera- tion that is performed through the back, the kidney being situated ex terior of the peritoneum. Because of cancerous, tumorous and ot « »s the surgeon of today is also called upon to subject the spleen and pancre whose physiological functions have never been clearly un- derstood by the scientists, to his cut- ting processes, and when these organs become too annoying to their owner the guardian of .the latter's organic peace promptly cuts short their func- nal career and send his patient forth lighter in frame and packet. In discussing the surgical subtrac- tion of man’s mechanfsm it would be unfair to omit reference to the appen- dix vermiformjs. that narrow cul de sac or wormlike tube that classes with the spleen and panereas as a plece of organism that has not known defined functions. Theoretically it has been accepted something that has been arried forward in the human frame from some lower state of being of the indefinite former period and has out- grown it usefulness except ag a moneéy getter for the surgeon, who has been kept busy during the past few yearsre- moving it from the more fashionabie 1nd wealthier of his patients, who can enjo. the distinction of submitting theraselves to an operation for appendi- citis. Then there are what the surgeon may clags among the less important of his professional practices —the removal, wholly or sectionally, of the upper lower limbs, which the unfortuaat: owner replaces in many cases with artificial members, and thus diminishes the hardships of handicapped locomo- tion. The cutting off of fingers and toes, the forearm and the lower part of the leg, the amputation. of the leg above the knee and finally the removal of ome-fifth of the body by culiing away the hip joint, and one-seventh of the body by removing the arm and the shoulder blade completely after ligat- ing the subclavian artery, give the surgeon ample opportunity to demon- strate his skill and afford some relief to a mangled man, whose injuries have brought him clese to death's door. And so the work of eliminating onc’s mechanism proceeds. The surgeon, con- fident of his own skil! and insured ugainst disastrous results that were formerly most common during thie heal- ing process, keeps taking away, taking away, until man is filled with vacant cavities and stunted limbs-—an apol- ogy for what nature intended him to be and a liviug suggestion of what po as FAET OF 500G CUT7 AWAY STOMACH _ . _ __ REMOVED APEZE Dy % AL ORED ~-_ GRAFTZED AT Ty FALSE LFG- -~ bly « future generation may havd de- generated to. History tclls an interesting story of the slow adwvancement of surgery sci- ence from the mythological period up to the present time—from the time when the practice of medicine was a duty of the priest and religious preju- dice put surgery in the bacKground and prohibited its use—to the twentieth century, when all the civilized nations of the world are bending their ener- gles toward keeping both branches of the science abreast and ever progress- ing for the benetit of mankind. 1t is also Interesting to follow the history through the different ages from the Greeian down through the succeed- ing centurles, dealing with the reversgs surgery received from time to time, to the present day, It is told how in one age some philosopher would come for- ward with a remarkable theory or make some startling demonstration of his skill. 7Then the science would ap- pareatiy be abandoned by the people, in so far as history can discover, and then it would be revived again by sim- ilar acts of a newer and more modern scientist. v After Hippocrates had had his day Erasistratus became known as a stu- dent and quite s eclose observer of anatomy, and in pursuance of knowl- ¢dge of the heart he was accredited with having discovered the lymph ves- 1s, and finally performed several mer- itorious operations, Two centuries before the Christian €ra Bretacus becanie identified as one of the best informed men on the af- fections of the brain, and his writings describe the Egyptian ulcer, tetanus and other scientific theories. Galen wus the uext of the ancient philosophers to gain distinction, his study being that of the muscles, the classification of which is followed to a great today. Albucasis wrote of the N i As the Christian era advanced instruments necessary in surgery and their differ- SHULL THPEED AND T PORIION OF BEALY CO/T AhZF FALSE EF7R L FHLEE TIETH N\e- = THLER ZUBE LY 7778047 LA FETUED FROM T/ FETRr SEVLERL FIBS =N SO\ TN OZD LU O LIvR : el N = e T WA | FIONEY o ovr T T T T T OBIEA REMOVED W/ 773 TMPIIHIED came more prominent. and TRoger of Palermo and his pupil, Roland, wrote many treatises on surgery, particular- 1y on the afflictions of the abdomen. In the thirteenth century the surgeons were engaged in trephining and treating compound fractures with splints. Al- though it is evident that the skill of the barber-surgeon had been greatly ex: gerated, he again came into prominence during tha fourteenth century, but was soon again forgotten, and from the fif- teenth to the nineteenth century histery the more proficient men of science bean. to assert their skill, particularly in Eng- land, where the foremost of the surgical authorities was Thomas Linacre. It was about this time that the nations of Eu- rope began vying with each other in the production of men who alternated in gafn- ing distinction in this particular branch of science, France presenting her Morel and Ambrose Pare, who was known as a most wonderful thinker; Hoiland claiming recognition for her Rau, who was an ex- pert on the cadaver, and Germany was also bringing to the fore such distin- guished men as Brasdor, De Sault and Chopart, who furnished much knowledgs to the world about operative surgery. Then Jtaly had her Scarpa: England again in turn Cheselden, White, who found a way of reducing dislocations, and John Hunter, who as a developer of knowledge of pathological anatomy and surgical technique was regarded as the greatest man of his day. Bell of England, the first to make use of drainage tubes of silver and lead; Bichat of France, an expert on hospital gangrene, and two of Holland"s greatest of surgeons, Sandifort and Leyden, were next to claim public attention. Then America’s surgeons entered the field of professional rivalry, the first to attract attention being John Jones, whose “Plain, Practical, Precise Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures” is still read by the latter day members of his class. From 1838 the advance in in- vestigation developed much valuable knowledge and led to the recognition by the world of the skill of men like Pasteur. Klebs, Koeh, Lister and Tyndall, and the introduction of anesthesia and the anti- septic technique, two of the most Im- portant events in the history of surgery in the United States and both to the credit of the Anglo-Saxen race, for it was an Englishman, discredited by the Ger- man savants, who Introduced antiseptics, and an American who gave to the world anesthesia, two great Inventions that have fairly revolutionized the practice of surgery and given to many an unfortu- nate map on the eperating table relief T T PYTHITZED from pain and assurance of life after the surgeon had finished exploring his anat- omy and removed from it a part of ita natural mechanism. ent applications to the scientific work; Avenzoar gave to the world his views on various diseases and the interven- tion of surgery; the barber-surgeon be- extent (3