A probationary essay on amputation in cases of external injury : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by Alexander Watson.

  • Watson, Alexander, 1799-1879.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay on amputation in cases of external injury : submitted ... to the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ... / by Alexander Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hand, any future case; there is no possibility of conceivings* pnd marking the various degrees of injury, and the various combinations of contingent circumstances, for the constitution of the patient, his accustomed way of life, his former diseases, or his present health, his state of mind, his alarm or his cool¬ ness, the absence or presence of fever, the conveniencies or hardships of his present situation, even the manner of his \ fall, and the degree and form of the injury ; in short, a thou¬ sand indescribable circumstances, must affect the Surgeon’s judgment; so that there can be no specific case described, no absolute rule delivered ; each accident is an individual Case, and the conduct of it, together with the safety of the patient, is to rest entirely on the discretion and abilities of the Surgeon.” But although much must depend on the discrimination, skill, and discretion of the practitioner, an attempt may here be made to specify some of those rules, which the result of general practice seems to sanction and establish, as principles upon which he may act. Many cases occur, of injury of the extremities, in which, from their nature and severity, there can be no doubt as to the propriety and necessity for immediate Amputation. In other cases again, where there would be no doubt as to the propriety of the primary operation in the field of battle, in civil practice it would be proper to delay it. These are cases, where it is probable that the Surgeon may be able to save the limb by great care and attention. This probability arises from the circumstance that in civil life, the patient has many comforts, which a soldier cannot get; and he is therefore in a much more favourable situation for the cure of such an injury than the latter; and also, because he is exposed to no risk from that frequent change of place to which a soldier is necessarily subjected. And there are also other cases in which it is pro¬ per to delay Amputation, either in the held, or in civil prac-