On the claims of priority in the exsection and disarticulation of the lower jaw : with an appendix containing the report of several operations performed / by Geo. C. Blackman.

  • Blackman, George Curtis, 1819-1871.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the claims of priority in the exsection and disarticulation of the lower jaw : with an appendix containing the report of several operations performed / by Geo. C. Blackman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and we will only add on this point, that we think many with our¬ selves would gladly have dispensed with plate No. 2, for one which represented the parts before the operation ! Prof. Carnochan asserts that his operation proves that the lower jaw may be entirely removed with success, &c., &c. We have already shown that to Prof. Carnochan was not reserved “ the glory” of having first furnished this proof. The case in which Mr. Spence completed the extirpation of the entire bone except the chin, (vid. Ed. Med. Surg. Jour., Apr., 1843,) together with the terrible operations for Osteo-Sarcoma, performed by Mr. O’Shaughnessy, (Brit. For. Med. Rev., July, 1845 ;) by Lisfranc, (Prec. de Med. Op., vol. ii., p. 453 ;) by Prof. Syme, (Cont. to Path, and Pract. of Surg., pp. 14, 15 ;) by Dieffenbach, (Die Op¬ erative Chirurgie ; Zweite Band, p. 64 ;) in which cases nearly all was removed, proved, in our humble opinion, far more than does the operation of Prof. Carnochan, that in those really demanding it, the entire bone might be amputated. These were cases in which it must truly have been, in the lan¬ guage of Dieffenbach, a “ kuhnsten und blutigsten operationen,” and which required “von seiten des Kranken die grosste Hingebung, von seiten des Chirurgen die grosste Gewandlieit, KuhnJieit und Fas- sung.” No one will question the boldness and skill of the dis¬ tinguished surgeon from whom we have just quoted, but we doubt whether success obtained in cases like those in which Dr. M’Clel- lan, Mr* Perry or Prof. Carnochan operated, would have em¬ boldened the German surgeon to attempt the extirpation, at once, ofjjthe enormous growth so graphically described at p. 64, (Op. Cit.,) and in the accomplishment of which, with all his daring, he thought it expedient to resort to three different operations. The same observations apply to the cases of Prof. Syme, Mr. O’Shaughnessy and M. Lisfranc. In the first of these the parts removed weighed 4^ pounds, in the second they were as large as a child’s head, and in the third they were of very great magni¬ tude. We believe we express the sentiments of the majority of surgeons, when we assert that the success which followed the ope¬ rations of Dr. M’Clellan, Mr. Perry and Prof. Carnochan, under the peculiar circumstances of these cases, affords but a feeble cri¬ terion of what we might expect were we about to encounter cases of such frightful character as those to which we have referred, and in which the extent of the disease might require the removal of the entire bone.