Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-07-21
THE GROWTH OF SURGERY
With Special Reference to Progress In
Military surgery-Notable Examples.

When the official report of the army
surgeon who was detailed by the war de-
partment to make observations on the
Manchurian battlehelds, so far as the
medical hospital and ambulance services
were concerned, shall be published, It will
show that many almost miraculous cures
OF battle MANNED fighting men have been
effected within surprisingly short times
This part of the report is supported al
most every day by press reports from the
front, which indicate the daily return to
the firing and fighting line of wounded
veterans discharged from the field hos
pital as cured and fit to again render
active service
Military surgery. as distinguished from
surgery in general, is of modern origin.
The Greeks had no military surgeons
their warriors were their own doctors
Thus Podalirius and Machaon, sons of
Aisculapius, in the Trojan war; united
the soldiers art, and to show the estima-
ton in which the latter was held Homer
makes Idomeneus exclaim:
"A wise physician, skilled our wounds to
heal
Is more than armies to the public veal"
Alexander the Great surrounded him
self with physicians in his wars but they
ministered to him alone, and his soldiers
had to treat their own wounds as best
they might The Romans had a poor
opinion OF doctors; yet they acknowledged
had its Medcus Vulneraius. Such good
service did they render to the armies OF
the republic that Augustus gave them the
privilege of citizenship, exempted them
from taxation and treated them with dis
tinguished honor The nations of Europe
did not initiate Rome I'm its institution
Of military surgery and in the Crusades
and other wars of the Middle Ages there
was no provision made for the systematic
care OF the wounded king would have
his own physician; the barons had their
clerks or chaplains, who had a rude en-
pirical knowledge of certain remedies
which they employed upon their patrons
The rest of the army depended on ig-
norant pretenders who followed the camps
endeavoring to sell much Wanted balms,
and on certain of the camp women who
made a profession of sucking wounds
This practice, the suction of penetrating
wounds, originated in Greece and has been
handed down almost to the present day
Women of all ranks says Fourier,
sucked the wounds Of warriors. some as a
matter Of business, and others from the
devotion OF their love"
The invention Of gunpowder. by intro
ducing a new and frightful class OF in
juries made the wounds of battle much
more serious, and such as to demand
much greater skill and care for their
treatment, than in the days of lances and
arrows. Yet II was not till the reign Of
Henry ". of France that military sur
gerry, properly so-called, came into being
Even the ilustrious Ambrose Pare,
whom Abernethy classes among the bar
ber-surgeons, had no military rank. but
accompanied the army merely as a pri-
vate individual Yet by the supereminence
of his genius he was acknowledged the
chief of all his companions. Whoever was
wounded wished for his aid He did away
with the use of boiling oil. which before
his time was considered a suitable and APP
| propriate application to gunshot wounds.
and by his skill and judgment gained the
| high reputation which he still enjoys.
THE reputation Of Ambrose Pare" says
| Fourier. was so universal in the armies
| that the soldier knew no danger when this
| great surgeon was present. Metz was be-
seiged; the wounded were perishng, de-
| prived OF all salutary aid. Pare hastens
| into the city to AFFORD them the blessings
| OF his art; the soldiers knowing his ar
| rival. cry: We fear nothing now; our
| Ambrose is with us!' The leaders in
the beleaguered town received him as the
most precious reinforcement that could
| be sent them and. by their care, album
| dance reigned In his house. while the be-
| seged We're enduring the most rude priva-
| tions"
Military surgery proper began with
| Henry " He first established military
| hospitals, which before that time had been
unknown. This was at the siege OF
| Amiens, in 1897; and so agreeable was 1t
to his troops that they called that the
| velvet campaign" In the reign OF Louis
| XIII. the medical department OF the
| French army began to assume a form and
| organization, and was gradually improved
| till. under the first Napoleon, IT reached
| its acme of perfection by the care of the
| illustrious Percy and the yet more illus
| trious Larrey. The army surgeon,
| through all that period, was the only one
| who could expect to attain eminence. The
| elder Petit the inventor of the tourniquet,
made no less than eight campaigns, and
| his son four In England. John Hunter,
| Hennen and Guthrie, three Of the bright
| est names in the British surgery, We're all
| military surgeons. Before the time of
Percy, the medical corps of an army were
| always placed in the rear, at a consider
able distance from the line of battle, where
| their attentions were necessarily confined
| to such of the wounded as could be
| brought to their station. Percy introduced
| the practice of certain of the surgeons
| going to the front with disciplined as
| sstants and thus giving their aid where
| 1t was most needed and saving many lives
| that must otherwise have persisted for
want of timely succor To Percy belongs
| the honor of having instituted the first
| organized ambulance corps.
For many years. and not until so very
| long ago trephining. or trepanning, was
| one of the most frequent OF capital opera
| lions, In the army especially, and many
| surgeon, in France particularly, thought
| as little of tapping a mans head as he
would of tapping a wine cask. This has
| all passed away, and the operation is now
| very rarely done. Desault treated in
| juries of the brain by large doses of tar
tar emetic, which in these days. however,
| finds few If any imitators. Throughout
the campaigns Of the English in the PEN
insula pTofuse bleeding was the treatment
for chest wounds and If the patient did
| not die of the wound. and was not killed
by the treatment, he slowly recovered
freely bled, often even to fainting. Did
his skin become hot or his pulse frequent
he was bled again; almost every new
symptom was the indication for another
bleeding. The greatest boons that medi-
cine has ever conferred upon humanity
have been met at first with the most
violent opposition, amounting in some
cases almost to persecution. When Pare
introduced the llgature, he was greeted
with a perfect storm of ridicule and abuse,
and finally, in self-defence, had to show
that the idea was not strictly original,
but might be traced in the writings Of
Hippocrates
Writing of bravery and courage dis
played in surgical operations, Carlyle, re-
ferring to Duke Leopold, the Austrian
Crusader, said Leopold had stun in
him, too He died, for example, in this
manner: Falling with a horse, think
in some siege or other, he had got his leg