An Address on the Relations of the Medical Profession
Authors: A. Sheen
Journal: BMJ (1884)

nation of what seemed so desirable, and-within the compass of dating *ier-the pathetic wailings over sufferings unrelieved and deaths -unresisted, and the despondency of professional inaction-we had re- torts of accomplishment which proved, by the wideness iof their sources, their numerical importance, and the character of their au- thors, that the revival was assured.The question now changed from one of possibility to one of improvement, and reports of cases merged into discussions of practical details of operative and 'theraaeutuidal ln- terest.These, from their precautionary or conservative bearing gave good augury of the vast ameliorations which we have seen within the ast twenty years, and have brought us at the present tit'e' to nearly certain success, when a careful surgeon operates in a. favouirable case.One may truly affirm that; in all these outpourings. of the Rivival period, there was nothing vainglorious, boasting presumptuous.A contributions to science, they were serious, canid, plain, aiding fur- ther progress, informing to-the profession, and useful to mankind.They bore upon them the signs of a wise resolution to advance circum- spectly upon the path now open ; and, if tinged with a; glow of the 'personal satisfaction which flows from a sense of duty in part fulfilled, and brightened with a gleam of the complacency reflected from the visible evidence, now so constantly before the public, in the living, healthy survivors of the operation, that the profession as a corporate fraternity was equalling in its philanthropic energy that which had made the reputation and had been the pride and solace of its older men of renown," I can only say, not that it was excusable or ad- missible, but that this gratulation was no more than the circumstantces prompted, or than may justly be felt by all who join in working, with a right mind and to a good issue, for the Welfare of their fellow- creatures.And here,'with 1865, I may end this retrospect of the revival of ovariotomy-of a rapid revolution in opinion and practice in less than ten years.Before 1858, the operation, like all good things; had been of slow growth.One hundred years ago, it was but a germ thatmight be descried in a lecture by John Hunter.Ten years later, it was seed that fell from the hand of Bell.In little more than-another de- cade, it germinated as a living vitalising reality in Kentbcky.Sixty years ago, it was transplanted to the land of its philosophical concep- tion.In twenty years more, we find it a sapling on English soil- growing slowly at first, and up to 1858 looking as if it might prove no more than a withering gourd.But by 1865, its root had struck firm, its stem stood erect, its branches were wide and, strong, known and sought as a refuge by the sick and dying.That it was no wither- ing gourd has been proved by all that the world has since seen.Thousands of perishing women have been rescued from death; many more thousands of years of human life, health, enjoyment; and usefulness have been given to the race; and to all future victims of a malady before inevitable in its fatality, it gives consolation, hope, and almost certainty of cure.And passing over another twentyfyears-advancing from 1865 to 1884-we can rejoice that, in all our metropolitan and most of our pro- vincial hospitals, and from the best teachers on both sides of the Atlantic, medical students of to-day may hear of the good already done-may see for themselves how success is attained ; and possibly, by the establishment of some new fact, or the discovery of some new device, they may increase our power over disease, and carry on the work to our successors.I must leave it to others to speak of our great hos itals and impor- tant schools.But I cannot close this part of my adsress without one word of hearty congratulation to my successors at the small hospital where, with seldom more than six or eight beds at my disposa, in twenty years I completed 408 cases of ovariotomy, the deaths having diminished in successive periods of five years from I in 3 to 1 in 4 or 5, and in the last two years to 1 in 10.In seven years, 1878-83, my three successors among them had 496 cases-about ninety more than I did alone in twenty years-the deaths falling from 1 in 5 in 1878 to 1 in 18 in 1883.And the recent publication of mycolleague Mr. Doran aids to the satisfaction I feel in seeing my operative work so efficiently continued, the pleasure of noting how happily he is supplementing the opening of his career as an operator by the intellectually higher distihetion of being acknowledged as a penetrating investigator and clear expositor of the obscure subject of ovarian pathology, to which he is devoting his philosophical earnestness.On this centenary of Hunter's lecture, we may truly claim that his example is followed, his foresight verified, and our exertions rewarded.(To be conVinued.