On the evolution of wound-treatment : during the last forty years ; being the Dr. James Watson lectures delivered at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in February, 1906 / by Sir Hector C. Cameron.

  • Cameron, Hector Clare, Sir, 1843-1928.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the evolution of wound-treatment : during the last forty years ; being the Dr. James Watson lectures delivered at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in February, 1906 / by Sir Hector C. Cameron. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/108 (page 5)
    wounds were probably best and most safely treated in accordance with the simple plan practised and taught by Mr. Syme in the Edin¬ burgh School. He, and probably many others, had long before recognised the fact that union depends upon a peculiar living power and action in the wounded tissues, and in no way upon the virtues of any superstitious observances or even upon those of balsams, lotions, and other local applications. Not only was there no longer any need for using “ mundifying,” “ incarning,” and “ cicatrizing 55 applications in due succession, but the numerous and much vaunted liniments and ointments which had succeeded that ancient form of practice were equally unnecessary. Writ¬ ing in 1867 (Lancet, 6th July), that is, after the first papers on the antiseptic system of treatment had been published, Syme referred to an early paper of his own as follows :—<c In the Edinburgh Medical Journal of 1825 there is a paper on the Treatment of Incised Wounds, which I wrote in order to show that the retention of blood between the cut surfaces was a great obstacle to their adhesion, and to suggest the treatment that seemed best calculated to prevent this effect. In those days it was the custom to seal up wounds immedi¬ ately after their infliction by straps of adhesive plaster, which prevented the discharge of any fluid