Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-12-15

Medical Department of the UNI
versity of Nashville.
practice and Malpractice.
Nashville rIsd.oa, journal.

the Medical Department of the University
of Nashville. We went through the build
ing and saw its laboratories and iacquisi-
tons, illustrative of the success and pros
perity of the institution and the extent to
which the progress in this branch of
science has been brought In Nashville.
museum is there that is unsurpassed in the
country. 1t is wonderful, not to say over
whelming. There science, investigation,
art, talent, genius, learning and let
tiers, have reared temple to science
that is imperishable. The professors and
instructors are among the most learned and
scientific gentlemen in the land, as well as
among the most conscientious and excel
lent gentlemen. Not youth is there but
who is in good hands. The institution is
laboring prosperously aud successfully.
In the abstrusiiies of the medical profess
sion, the young men are taught with de-
gree of thoroughness impaired by but few
similar institutions, and with a soieitude
parental and disinterested, save in SO far
as the ends of science are indicated and
future usefulness accomplished. The
students in attendance are from nearly all
the States.
These representative students are in
future, cultured and tutored as they Will
be in the most abstruse of all sciences, to
practice for our chiidren's children.
The institution also monthly disseminate
The principles and ideas of medical expert
ence in journal not surpassed in the
United States. This publication, too, is
more labor Of love than Of profit. The
most renowned physicists could not more
searchingly, discriminatory, or usefully,
give to the public in the same style of lu-
ciditythe truths of which the journal treats.
Take the Nashville journal Of Medicine
and Surgery, edited by Drs. W. K. Bowl
ing and W. L. Nichols, with Paul T. Eve
and W T. Briggs as associate EDITORS.
Where 10 the fame compass do we find the
same information? Look at the December
number. See how, for instance, that deli
cate point of medicinal malpractice is
handled. Il is case of alleged n1alprac-
tice prepared by John J. Reese, III. D.,
Professor Of Medical Jurisprudence and
Texicoligy in the University Of Pennsylva-
MIA, (Haire vs.. Reese.
The frequency of cases and suits for al
legged malpractice throughout the country
during the last few years makes the publ
cation of this one pertinent. We quote
from pages $50, PSI If the Journal
Ga the I'd day Of February, 1869, was
hastily summoned to tbs Colored House
Of Refuge, TO attend man who had,
while painting the house, fallen from the
second-story window upon the stone pave
Inent beneath, about twenty-five feet dis
| tsnt. His fall had been somewhat brok en-
by bis lighting first upon the ratings and
then being thrown off upon the ground
1 found him bleeding pIofusely from g
lacerated wound of the scalp, and groan-
| ing pitsously from pain about the right
| hip, on which the force of the blow ap-
| pear ed to have been spent.
Ny first duty was to arrest the hem lfrh-
| age from the head. On examina ion, /
| found no fracture Of the skull; and con-
seriousness was perfect, On next proceed
ing to examine the condition of his hip
and leg, so great was the agony expressed
on the slightest movement of the limb,
! that desisted from further attempts, until
| l could have him removed to his own home
where I might etheriZs him, and SO iusti-
tute careful and thorough examination.
1 accordingly had him p sced in g covered
| spring wagon, upon bed, and thus con-
veyed to his residence, some three miles
| distant. | preceded him to his house, in
order to be prepared for his arrival, where
had bed made ready for him in lower
room.
After q complete anesthesia, was able
to make thorough exploration of his limb.
To my surprise, 1 found neither fracture
nor dislocation, although I examined him
most thoroughly. On drawing the limb
down, there was neither shortening nor
frightening discovered; neither inversion
nor aversion of the foot; and on rotating
the thigh, with one hand on the hip-joint,
there was not the slightest crepitation. Ia
fact, there was an entire absence of all the
symptoms of either fracture or luxation
about the hip. The shaft of the femur was
likewise uuipjured. The case was simply
,one of excessive confusion about the great
trochanter, in which the muscles and
nerves suffered primarily, but which,
as will be seen, subsequently resulted in
some shortening of the limb. 1 had the
patient carefully put in bed, upon his back,
and kept at perfect rest. Anodyne lotions
| Qead-water and laudapum) were at first
kept constantly applied to the hip, which
continued extremely painful; and subse.
ouently, slightly stimulating and anodyne
applications were made. Under this treat
ment, the man began slowly to improve;
his pain diminished, though the swelling
about the hip did not entirely disappear.
Three weeks after the accident, feeling
anxious lest possibly might have made an
error in my diagnosis, and lest there might
be, after all, fracture of the neck of the
femur, 1 asked my friend DR. D. Hayes Ag-
new, Surgeon of the Pennsylvania Hospit-
al, to see the patient with me, which he
kindly consented to do. Together.
We again instituted a III st critical
and searching examination, by all the
| methods known in surgery. The man
was placed upon his back, and his legs
carefully measured, both by comuaring
them with one another, and also by the
tape-line. Then rotation of the thigh was
practiced, one baud being held over the
| Joint, In order to discover any crepitation,
as well as to notice the arc described in
the movement of the trochanter. Next, he
was made to stand upon the sound limb,
and to swing the affected one to and fro.
From al these various means employed.
DR.. Agneg arrived at the conclusion that
there was certainly no sign of either frac-
ture or dislocation, thus confirming nv
own original diagnosis, THAT it was simply
a case of confusion of the hip.
l continued to visit him until May 10. a
period of just fourteen weeks, seeing him
every day during the first week, and sub
sequently less freqRently-nakiDg him, in
all, twenty-one visits. About week be-
fore / ceased ny attendance, / permitted
him to walk about on clutches, which he
was able TO do with co1si Ter bile facility,
although he could not put his foot to the
GROUND without still feeling pain in the hip
joint.
heard nothing more of this mau until
the month of August following, when 1
was rather astonished at receiving a note
from an attorney, apprising me that my
g9ondam patient, who, was fondly mag
lining, was chsrisbing grateful recollecti0ns
Of nv kind attentions. (for he
has never paid me a fsrtbiug for
my services, had commenced q suit against
me for damages, for causing him to have a
shortened limb; alleging that this had re-
suited in consequence of my want Of skill
and attention to him! l soon satisfied this
legal gentleman that there were no grounds
for an action, when he at once abandoned
the case.
About q week afterwards, received an
other similar missivo from a second attor-
ney. This gentleman likewise threw up
the case, as soon as | convinced him of the
absurdity of the allegation. But, what was
most extraordinary, my friend Dr. Agnew,
who only saw the patient once in consulta
ton, and who did nothing but-what my
learned counsel ersely observe inbis cross
examination Of the plaintiff measure his
legs, was also sued at the same time by
our aggrieved patient!
We heard nothing further from our
friend for about six months, when we re.
ceived notice from third attorney,
that our cases woald now certainly be
pushed to a trial In the meantime, how
ever, still another member of the legal
profession-the fO1trth-had been con-
shifted, who, on hearing the circumstances
of the case, wisely declined to have any
thing to do with IT,
After celebrating this and other ceses,