Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1829-12-29

pOSSSSSeG VI dudtOLllCdl huOWleuSS, WIZ
knows where to find blood vessel, and
how to secure it, is a guardian angel, and
brings life and safety in his hands.
During the past year, mechanick from
a seaport town, being on visit to his friends
in the country, trod upon scythe in such a
manner as to cause the point to wound him
Just below the ear. Notwithstanding the
plugging and stufing practised by the med
ical attendants, this man died of bleeding
on the fourth day, without all attempt being
made to tie the great artery of the neck,
which probably was wounded.
A woman in a neighbouring State, fell
down cellar, and wounded the carotid ar
terry with broken earthen pot. She bled
to death after several days, without an at
tempt having been made to put hgature
on this artery, which would have been an
efectual and comparatively safe method of
stopping the bleeding, and which moder-
ate knowledge of anatomy would have ena-
bled any resolute practitioner to have per-
formed.
A child, in town not many miles from
the metropolis of Massachusetts, having got
a bean in its windpipe, was suffocated, after
several days of great torment and distress.
After its death, the body was examined,
and, on making slit into the air tube, the
bean dropped out. A by-stander, not medi-
cal, instantly exclaimed, :" why could not
this have been done while the child was
alive ?" The answer to this Question can
only be found in the humiliating acknowl-
edgement that the physicians, in whose
hands the case had fallen, were ignorant of
Anatomy.
A farmer, in the county Of , struck
the point of scythe into the left leg. A
violent bleeding was the consequence. A
physician in the neighbourhood being cal
led to him, stuffed the wound with balsam
and lint, and put OR bandage IS tight as
possible. The force of the blood, however,
was greater than that of the bandage; and
the bleeding returned repeatedly, till the
patient was nearly exhausted. Then sur
geon we'll acquainted with anatomy came,
and took the bandages from the limb, which
he found mortified around the wound, from
the tightness of the bandage. He next
made an incision deep in the sound part of
the leg, and exposed the wounded artery,
and tied it. The bleeding was entirely
stopped, and the poor man, though very low,
recovered at last, and continued a valuable
member of society. This is not a solitary
case. We could relate great number
very similar, in which important lives have
been preserved, which must have been lost
WITHOUT very minute knowledge of Anato-
my.
With the above, let the following fact of
an opposite nature be contrasted "A late
celebrated teacher of anatomy, in the early
part of his practice, was called upon to re-
duce dislocated hip, and, after making
several Intellectual attempts was obliged to
abandon the case. He procured subject,
and Immediately applied himself to the dis
section of the hip joint, and to the study of
the muscles and ligaments, by whose agen-
cy the bone is retained in its unnatural state
of dislocation. Having made himself mas
ter of the anatomy of the part, and discov-
cred, as he thought, the cause of his failure,
he returned to the dislocated hip, renewed
his efforts, guided by more perfect knowl-
edge, and succeeded to his entire satisfac-
ton.
Many physicians, it seems, became
qualified as surgeons, and obtained valu-
able anatomical knowledge by the large
opportunities offered by the revolutionary
war, and some in the same way during
the last war. In this way the science
has, in measure, been kept alive in this
country, with the aid of occasional private
dissections. But as Medical Colleges be-
gan to be established toward the close Of
the last war, the legislature took the alarm
and passed severe laws against those who
might be concerned in taking bodies from
the grave, :" till at last, ''say the Committee,
4" it has become scarcely more hazardous
to assault the bodies of the living, than
those of the dead. Plates and models
of wax are of little value.' Many per-
sons" they remark, confound the open
ing of bodies to ascertain the cause OF
death, and the changes made by disease,
with the dissecting of bodies to learn
anatomy /; and express their surprise, that
physicians are not contented with the de-
gree of liberty which the good sense ofthe
enlightened part of the community al
ready allow on this subject. But the task
of the student of anatomy is one which
requires much patient labour, and for a
long time. He has not only to make him
self familiar with the form, size, and rela-
tive position of the different organs of the
body, but likewise to examine their init
mate structure-the course Of their blood
vessels and nerves-the places where
these are most liable to be injured by
violence, and where they can be most
readily secured. tied, compressed. and d.
vided. For this purpose, he must dissect,
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