The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-10
MEDICAL.

Within the last few vars a radical re-
 sort to the knife for the relief of all ab-
 dominal and pelvic disorders has become such an outrage that it has not failed to
 call forth most earnest protests from
 observers both of the laity and of the
 medical profession. A semenig craze it
 apepars, has set upon the minds of many
 ambitious surgeons to win notoriety and
 get rich quick, and in order to achieve
 these ends they rashly resort to their
 knives upon the slightest pretexts to
 carve their patients, and without due
 exercise of conservatism. hastily diag-
 nose almost every abdominal pain as
 symptom of gravest character, and in-
 stead of first trying some safer and milo CT method of giving relef, pro-
 nounce the case Appendicitis, Liberated
 ovaries cancer of the womb, or some other like horrible disorder, and imme-
 diately consign the victim to the operat- ing table. This fad of certain class of surgeons I charitably call craze, TOT it does seem unreasonable that any sur geon would for the sake of mercenary
 gain, or for the lure of fame, prostitute his professional license to so base a nmrt as to subject his confiding patrons to
 such needless torture and extreme danger
 as a laparotomy operation if not con scientiously assured of the necessity TOT same And yet when I reflect upon what little credit is given what meagre reward is bestowed, and what absence or notoriety is obtained by the painstakins'
 conservative practitioner, and further re- fleet upon how much easier it is to do laparotomy in a half day and to receive therefore a fee of two to fifteen hundred dollars. and think of how much more eclat is on his work bestowed, even by those upon whom the work is performed, (that is by such of those as perchance survive), I somehow can't help but sur mise that personal ambition and morplu cupdity must exercise some influence m
 stimulating the appalling number Of such operations.
 Only about thirty-fve years ago, my nreceptor. Dr. Robert Batty of Rome. Ga, performed the first ovareetomy tex tirpation of the ovaries) and by his ac- ton set a precept which has led to the relief and prolongation of life or thou- sands but which has also beyond doupt, caused oceans of tears and tens Of thou- sands of untimely deaths through the un- curbed cupidity and ambitions of many less intelligent and less conscientious sur
 eeons. who, being infatuated with the glory of Batty's achievement which spread his fame throughout the world nave
 vainly attempted to win like dist1nctloh
 for themselves. And the sequence mas been that thousands of women through out the whole of this country are daily m,itflated with as little compunction as Is felt in the spaying of SOW pigs on the
 stock farms of Tennessee and Missouri know this is a strong assertion but the facts in the case warrant the statement
 Indeed so common has become the ev- erv day work of ''body ripping and so callous and careless have become the rip
 pers. that it Is known that in many in- | in m their victims forgotten to remove and have left within their patients bodies such things as scissors, forceps and sponges' Of course. not great many such ln- stances like these come to light for Old
 Mother Earth is very kindly disposed to-
 wards such surgeons, and usually con ceals and hides the worst of their work
 within her ample bosom. True, such sur
 geons are not fit to cut putty to remove a. pane of glass but they are all accred- | fled members of the great American Med- | ical association, and are out TOT pusl-
 ness and all seem to be getting their 1 share. And as I don't mind little gen
 erous aid to struggling genius, Will ln-
 dulge fin a bit of free advertising here Tor
 their benefit by citing few cases, to 1 wit: No. Mrs. H. Of AlDertvliie, ! Ala being advised by her local physi- I cian to come to this city and consult ! surgeon, accompanied by her. nusoano'
 presented herself at one of our most re- ] spectable private hospitals, and atter 1 submitting to examination was Informed
 by the doctors that she had floating
 kidney. which would require her body to
 be opened and the kidney sutured oacK
 to it's proper position. After this infor- ] nation she called at another regular in- | firmary and without making ment1oh or having consulted with any other surgeon
 submitted to another examination ana
 was then gravely informed that one and
 probably both ovaries were ulcerated and
 would have to be taken out Her hus- band told the doctor he would take the matter under consideration before having l inc work done He then carried his wire | 10 still another well known surgeon here who. after making due examination, ana
 being uniformed of what the other docr 1 tors had said, pronounced the case ap- pendicitis, and advised an immediate op- l eration for removal of the appendix
 Her husband was yet evidently not sat l isfied and had begun to smell a rat v | so presented his wife to me, making no mention of what others had sad or the case I declared her troubles to be only l functional, took her case, and In less
 than two months she was well and has
 remained well now for the last three
 years and has never had any operation | whatever, nor any return or her former
 trouble.
 No. 2-Mrs. E--- of this city, a
 vounr bride. who feared she had appen-
 dicitis. consulted me. I said no; she con l suited another doctor who confirmed her
 fears. Husband called in surgeon, who
 said it was Liberated ovary. and to con-
 firm his diagnosis inserted an instru-
 ment to find and show pus. None was
 found, but patient was made dangerously 1 i'll by the experiment and came near los ing her life. After several months suf-
 fering she was by the same surgeon op-
 erated on for floating kidney, which
 proved on examination to be intact and
 all right. Again she came near dying.
 But after another lapse of couple of