The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-15 00:00:00

THE SURGICAL TREATMENT OF

SIR R. PEEL.
Last week it was our painful duty to describe the
injuries received by the late universally lamented Sir
Robert Peel at the time of his fatal accident, as far as
they were ascertained by his professional attendants.
After reading the authentic statement which we were
enabled to publish, there could be but one opinion as
to the extraordinary and unusual nature of those in-
juries. We believe that the lesions caused by the
accident present a case in surgery without a precedent.
Dissatisfaction has been expressed in some quarters
because a decisive examination of the patient was not
insisted upon within a few hours after the accident,
so that the extent of the injuries might have been
ascertained. Remarks, too, have been made respect-
log the slight amount of medical and surgical treat-
ment resorted to by his medical advisers. These
observations could only be made from misapprehen-
sion respecting the powers of endurance, and the
constitutional peculiarities of the great statesman
whose loss is so profoundly deplored. We believe
his two principal attendants— Sir Benjamin Brodie
and Mr. Hodgson, than whom the world could not
produce more able and judicious surgeons—enter-
tained from the first but little hopes of his recovery.
'Their apprehensions were based on a long and inti-
mate knowledge of the physical organization and ner-
vous temperament of the patient. Mr. Hodgson, we
know, bad attended Sir Robert Peel, at Tamwortb,
for upwards of thirty years, and Sir Benjamin Brodie
had also enjoyed a long professional intercourse with
him. It will be remembered that after the fatal acci-
dent Sir Robert Peel fainted several times before he
reached his house in Whitehall-gardens, and again
upon his seeing Lady Peel. His excessive sensibility
to pain had always been most remarkable. Like
Cicero, Demosthenes, and other renowned orators, his
nervous system was so finely and delicately wrought
as to render him singularly impatient and sensitive
under suffering. It is probable that a more striking
example of this physical and mental peculiarity was
never witnessed. Only three weeks before his death,
he was visiting the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's-
park, with one of his daughters, when a small
heimby-
dmonkeyim-
mediately jumpedy fainted, suddenly
remainedupon hmis hand;nh
affected
the incident during two or- three hours. On
another occasion his thumb was injured by
being squeezed through the shutting of a door, and
the pain, though not more than is common in such
cases, caused him to faint several times in succession.
ys With such a
ot owf
,tnhden
r nervousth,,,that serious
and y ascular
sresults
terns we need not
shouldoeo
a s inh.a v
tb
iese nn
oatp psruehrperni
sdiendg on
thtahte lsaitre
Ru no
hfoerrttupn ae teel
should have been unable to bear the ordinary
aedmviasnaihpluel.ation The question is
of the injured
suggested, whether the result would have been diffe-
rent if the sufferer had been
,trepatoetd
tloikethaisn ordinary
patient patient in a public hospital
minute t
or, if he had not died, that
died under the operation
ex-
amination had been inhsaitstsedirußpoohne,ritt
piseeqlumiteigphotszhibalvee,
nay, even probable, t
bythe necessary mania
Sir Benjamin Brodie
t fullhey a
on
hd s
ee
rnvt
ei rde.
i
sufferingthep
ul
mani-
pulations. i o gravestns a
ncomplicationsdistress
these
dnaatdangers
gscaused
might have arisen from the
shave
been thoroughly con-
scious,aud Mr. Hodgson naus
concurrence to the judicous
lives in the kingdom
With one of the most valuable
were not justified_tincurring
and we are inclinel to
danger. would have been
snail:he under their
additional hanrdi
profession through all time ;
held as a disgrace to the
cgaivuetioonur
and we are sure, upon due consideration, that such
would be the opinion of all surgeons of judgment and
hands, theyand
-nerience. —.Lancet.

INteedwßishop
Zea.
-____------_
ECCLESIASTICAL ArI'OININENTS.—The Rev. Thor.
ci ni
st e}d,
üßi
ili
,srhdo, pp o.
D.D.
.L, yl
St taepl tpooni ,i
p
of Montreal.
'7
aancdk.s o nT, 'ape DR. e, vi.s Fa Pr
Li°
By an error committed on the line of telegraph
from Bayonne, in announcing the death of Sir Robert Peel,
the name of Palmella was substituted for that of the Hon.
Baronet. 'The Madrid journals have, in consequence of this
error, been making long commentaries on the consequences
which may result to I?9rtugal from the death Of the plat) 9f
rall4oll§.