On the radical cure of reducible inguinal hernia / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Wells, Spencer, 1818-1897.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the radical cure of reducible inguinal hernia / by T. Spencer Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    closure. Schuh, of Vienna, used the thread of Gerdy for drawing up into the canal a short wick of cotton, and counter-pressure was made by a compress and bandage, but this did not succeed to his satisfaction. The pressure was neither firm nor uniform. Max.Langenbeck contrived another instrument (figured at bot- tom of preceding page) which he used with some success, but it was designedly left so long applied that sloughing of the com- pressed parts followed, and it was to the subsequent granulation that Langenbeck looked for closure of the canal. The process required long confinement to bed, and was altogether too severe to come into general use. Leroy D'Etiolles contrived another in- strument. It is a metallic cylinder and a cover, which can be so screwed together as to press the invaginated scrotum and abdo- minal parietes together. If this could be fastened tight enough to prevent its slipping out without injuring the compressed skin, it might be a useful instrument, but it cannot. Mr. Fer- gusson, the instrument-maker of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, has been trying to improve this instrument at my suggestion. The screw seen in the woodcut is brought nearer the cylinder, and a needle screw passes through both cover and cylinder from without, near the extremity. Both cover and cylinder are made of wood, but I think the instrument, even in this state, is inferior to Wutzer's. Wutzer was Professor of Clinical Surgery at Bonn. He still lives there, but has retired from his Chair. His instrument, made by his own maker at Bonn, the one I used in my early operations, is shown in the annexed diagram. Below is seen