The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-04-25

example of recovery after a gnn-shot wound
of the splenic artery. Esmarch admits both
of these LESSONS in the case of the President,
and therefore admits that there were two in
iuries from neither of which Is 1t known
that person has ever recovered.
Esmarch Stags, as hunters say, are occa-
sonally shot through the body of vertebra;
but they run away and get we'll because,
he adds, they are not probed by meddlesome
surgeons.
Hunt--If they ran away and got well how
does the hunter know that the ball passed
through the body of vertebra, and how
does the hunter know that they did not die
OF lingering and painful illness-of py@-
mia or septic@mia? Do hunters furnish
any specimens or autopsies of these sup
posed cases? If not, what sort of testimony
Is this hunters story fora scientific discus
sion?
If, however, it were proven, as 1t is not,
that stays thus injured made complete re-
covery, because they were not probei and
poisoned by meddlesome and septic SURGE
ons, 1t must be admitted that they recovered
without carbolic acid or any other form of
antiseptic dressing.
| IF such case could be shown. is it not
a fact that the vertebra of stag is much
larger than the vertebra of man, and that
a perforation of the same diameter would for
the same reason be less likely to cause
death?-Ed.1
Further than all this, to make the cases in
| any sense parallel, the splenic artery, in the
case of the stag, should be wounded also,
and there is no pretense that hunter has
| seen recovery from both of these LESSONS.
| Esmarch--The ball was eneystei, and
therefore conveyed no poison. The bacteria
were carried in by he surgeons. Bismarck
means, of course, DR.. Townsend.-Ed.l
Hunt-Bacteria are found in assesses
| which never had any communication with
the external air. and which never have been
touched by probes of surgeons. Every stu
dent of medicine knows this, and Esmarch
| is a dulf reader of the literature of his own
| countrymen If he does not know it. Sepsis
| often exists independently of external le-
sion.
Esmarch--The pus ought not to have been
squeezed" out.
| you, Professor Esmarch, have no authority
for saying it was.
Esmarch-American surgeons do not seem
TO give heed to what We Stronger and T.
have told them, namely, ITO do no harm in
| gunshot wounds.
/ Hunt-American surgeons have had con-
| siderable experience in gunshot wounds,
| and scarcely need the advice of their Ger
man brethren upon this point.
lucy nave douS os Lair
| genbeck did in the case of sour emperor
let the wounds alone, and, like him, the
President might have recovered.
Hunt-Now, my dear Esmarch, do you
seriously compare a few scattering duck
shot in the face and arm OF the emperor with
President Garfield's terrible bullet wound?
Esmarch-Some American doctors think
| that President Garfeld's surgeons did not do
enough: that they ought to have probed and
cut until they found the ball, and then have
taken it out. In'this they show their great
| ignorance of the whole subject of military
surgery. l think they did too much.
| Hunt-In view of these two wholly oppo-
site and conflicting opinions entertained by
Esmarch and some American surgeons, it
seems fair to assume that President Gar
fields surgeons did just enough.