Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-20
MODERN SURGERY.

hand--say six months or year or | will
give 81 900 to know my disease and be
cured, was SO widely discussed. 1t was
on the 18th Of May that it appeared, and,
according to the newspapers, only one of
the doctors consulted pronounced the dis
ease cancer, though after the post-mortem
examination had revealed that cancer of the
stomach was the cause of death, it was
stated explicitly that "all the physicians
who bad examined him believed he had
cancer of the stomach" Some fun was
made of the sufferers expression of willing
ness to have his stomach "taken out and
examined" taking his chances of surviving
the operation, and one or two newspapers
made merry with the idea OF such heroic
surgical treatment, insisting that the
millennium would not be far distant when
one could have an organ removed, mended,
and returned to its place better than new.
In point of fact the operation for resec-
ton OF the stomach, such as Mr.. Steele
suggested, has been performed repeatedly
OF late, though it cannot be said that the
results have been favorable, and the idea
dates back to the beginning of the Gen.
fury. 1t was ia 1910 that Merrem frat
proposed and described it, but no one then
ventured to adopt his suggestion. In
January, 1881, as the result of experi-
ments by Pean, Rydygier, and others upon
lower animals, Prof. Billroth ventured
to extirpate the pylorus. According to
Ternan medical paper, eight cases OF this
operation had been performed up to No.
vember last. five of which were by the &C.
complished Viennese surgeon who first at
tempted it. Three of the cases died
almost immediately, and one three months
later from return OF the cancerous
growth. The fifth patient was living
three months afterward, apparently in
good health. DR.. VOTERS patient, opera
ted on in April, 1881, was reported to be
doing veil this spring. In July the Rus.
sian surgeon Kitajewsky, removed tumor
weighing something over five ounces from
the stomach of woman aged So who died
six hours later. Ca the 2lst OF November
DR.. Rydygier performed the operation in
ease OF perforating gastric ulcer with dila-
satiou. Il is reported at considerable
tength in the Medical Record of February
:25th, that journal Femarking: "Tte fact
That the patient has, up to the present time,
been greatly benefited, gives some justi.
ication TO this most radical and ventur.
iiome mode of treatment, and the operation
as thus applied ia new class of diseases
may, In certain minor degree, be con-
isidered an epochal one." The patient,
woman of thirty, otherwise healthy, was
prepared for the operation by daily wash
ing out the stomach with salicylic acid and
water, when the abdominal wall was d.
.yided in the Inca alba for the distance Of
zen eentimeters, the pylorus-the constric-
zion between tee smaller extremity of tile
tYtp nh Il I'd ! L.. L Al
duodenum-drawn out, and the diseased
portion removed, which included the py-
ioric orifce. The stomach was then united
to the duodenum by cstcut lgatures, and
the hnes Of union were powdered with
idOtoEm. The patients progress was unin-
terrugtedly favorable, and six weeks later
she was reported to consider herself well.
The Berlin archives OF clinical surgery
give at length the report OF similar
operation performed by Professor Czerny,
of Heidelberg, on man of twenty.eight.
on the 2lst of July, 1881, the same general
method being adopted. In three weeks
the patient was able TO leave his bed, and
in five had resumed his employment, per-
fectly cured. The case does not seem to
have been reported in the American press.
As yet 1t is too coon to pass final opin-
ion upon the operation, but the subject ia
fairly summed up in these words of dis
medical man of this city to the
writer a fancy it will be a common
enough thing here a few years from now,
but the first American surgeon to under
take il will need to have bread shoulders
TO stand the criticism of you folk of the
press # his patient dies" Analogous cases
are not rare, such as the extirpation of the
kidney, the introduction of an artificial
lin the case of boy who had
closed up the aperture to the stomach by
drinking lye), the removal by SchepzeLIer,
of Freiburg, of sections of the intestines in
which distractions existed, etc. Indeed,
though only q generation has elapsed since
MacAulay penned his famous passage COM
pairing the England of 1855 with the Eng
land Of the early reign of Victoria" Every
brioklayer who falls from scsffold, every
sweeper of crossing who is run over by
carriage, may now have his wounds dressed
and his linus set with a skill such as I60
years ago all the wealth of great Lord
like Orruond, or of s,merchant prince like
Clayton, could not have purchased lit is
hardly too much to say that during that
period surgery has made even greater pro-
gress than IL the century and half Of
which he took cognizance. 1t is less than
forty years since the use of anesthetics was
with unimaginable advan.
tages both in saving pain and in
enlsrging the bounds of surgical activity.
Now that a surgical operation can be con-
Quoted with tti5 ei4urely care of dissec-
ton, conservative surgery mas inning,
and the mere excisions of the porli0Ss
actually affected has superseded such
treatment as the amputation of the arm
for diseases of the elbow joint, with the
gain of limbs preserved and diminished
from shock. A further step in
this direction was guaranteed when such
surgery was made practically bloodless by
pressing the blood out OF the affected
limb. 1t would never do fer laymen to
venture an opinion upon the germ theory
and kindred questions, still there ia much
promise held oat by the thorough discus.
sion and careful testing OF the question
how far mortality in surgery can be OBJ
waited by antiseptic dressings. 1t is only
a few years since simultaneous osteotomy
Of the thigh bone for the relief OF knock
knee was performed. Just year ago was
the complete success OF a case
Of interhuman osseous trans plantation,
tents whose limbs required Strengthening
were grated upon diseased arm with the
result OF uniting and Transforming use
less limb int thoroughly useful one.
Though the " Induction balance" proved
at fault in the case of Presi-
dent Garfield, the idea is sound and will
surely be utilized. The same may be said
OF the drilling and cutting of bone by ma
chinery. While ii is to be feared that the
experiments by Lacerda and Gautier will
not prove that permanganate of potash is
a panacea for snake bite and hydrophobia
unless we are in error, Bfunton and
Fayrer's experience was unfavorabie-the
researches which they, Pasteur and others,
have been making into the origin and &C.
ton of such poisoEs leave little or no doubt
that within the next few years a solution
will be found of the problem thus present.
cd, probably in vaccination. Cancer and
consumption are perhaps the only two
great stroBghelis that asid ont against
medical skill, but he would be bold
prophet who should declare his unfalterirg
that both these diseases will net
have been mastered by the close of tie
century. II is only little while since
Tyndall's letter calling attention to Koch's
into the etiology of tuberculsr
disease revealed the existence Of hope al
most coextensivs with desire for the ex-
tinction OF consumption and though we
do not recall the final result Of Clay's
treatment of cancer with CHA turpentine, it
promised relief, ii not cure, and was only
one Of many revelations of the active and
resolute search that is being prosecuted by
so many intelligent seekers, and that must
be crowned with success. New
York Mail.
Drying HER HUSBANDS GRAVE. "A
Chinaman died soon after his marriage with
q young and lovely woman. As he was
dying the wife was loud in her protesta-
tions of grief and her determination not
TO marry again The husband was not nm