The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-13

Mooern surgery Is distinctly
product of evolution We are accus-
TONED to start with Hippocrates. the
rather OF medicine. who lived and
worked 40 years before the Chris
tan Era. but for more than a rnou-
sand years preceding his time sur
gerry was recognized procedure, the
Egyptians performing operations
which even now should not be under
taken lightly; such. for instance, as
Tephining or opening the skull. We
can trace from the time OF Hippo
crates In unbroken succession the line
OF men who have labored in surgery
and who contributed their part to-
ward the advancement of science an
alienation of human suffering.
While there were in every age men
who upheld the best of Greek tradi-
ton, at times, the practice of sur
gerry was largely commercialized, ana
during the Middle Ages was dele
gated to the BARRIERS, who could ac-
commodate their customers WITH a
greater variety of cuts than their
modern successors are able to do.
But what we now regard as the mo-
mentous discoveries have all been
made in com paratively modern times
Not until the century just past, In
L
chiefly towards its closing years, has
the surgeon been able to confer those
great boons upon suffering humani~
ty, anaesthesia, or the production of
insensibility during surgical opera
tons, being first employed In 1912 By
southern surgeon. DR.. Crawford
Long of Georgia. and asepsis, or the
elimination of the danger of blood
poisoning" being first practiced in
1884 hy "a far 1frh
Lister. and was introduced in Virginia
| in the early 70's by the late DR.
! George Ben Johnston.
The significance OF these two dis
coveries is borne home to us If we
can picture the performance of a
major operation without anaesthetic
and without care as to asepsis: a hell
TO patients and purgatory to opera
tors.
John Hunter. the noted English
surgeon, who lived until 1898, con-
sidered recourse to operation as a
confession OF failure and most of the
great and humane surgeons OF those
| pre- anaesthesia and asepsis days.
! dreaded undertaking severe opera
| tons.
| Picture to yourselves the patient
| strapped to a table, in full possession
| of his faculties. subjected to the ex-
CIRCULATING agony of an amputation at
| the hip or shoulder joint; or a deli
cate woman forcibly held while the
surgeon cuts through the abdominal
wall and removes a tumor; and yet
such things as these actually occurred
before the introduction OF general
anesthesia
Place yourself in the position OF
the surgeon of those days. Added to
the responsibilities always incident
upon a major operation is the neces-
| sity of witnessing the patients SUI
fering, so calculated to impair his
Judgment, which is here of such inn
portance Occasionally. the feelings
of the family and friends led to ex-
preston which also might further
tend to interfere with the surgeons
self possession. as when Mcdowell, a
Virg!nian. In Kentucky cabin. per-
formed the FIRST abdominal operation
undertaken in this country. while
mountaineers full OF moonshine and
equipped with rifles waited outside to
place him on the retired list, should
his patient succumb.
Picture to yourself further the
ost-operative history of patient
who has been subjected to the tor
lures OF such an operation. The
wounds thus produced were always
invaded by germs, which in those
days were considered Incidents to
the process of healing Think of
the foul-smeliing wound discharging
It's quantities of pus which rendered
the patient an object of disgust to
himself and his attendants: think OF
the Eangrene which turned his flesh
into rotting carrion alive with loath-
some maggots and which ate its way
into blood vessels. causing terrifying
or fatal hcmorrhage; think OF the
patient burning with fever and wild
with delirium, shrieking In his agony :.
think OF a mortality upwards of 50'
per cent and you will have true
picture OF what actually occurred in
Chimborazo hospital during our
Civil War.
To men, who had the courage to
Labor under such ..irxing .circtan,-
stantes, every modern surgeon should
bare his head, and we must confess
that such a future might well have a
deterrent influence on many students
of medicine who contemplate a sur
gical career
In contrast to this follow the sur
gtca1 patient in a modern hospital
Placed under the influence Of the
--alim!nating general anaesthetic,
ut r. operated upon with
re to prevent contami-
md by germs Pro-
~. his wound
T.