Observations on diseased spine : illustrated by a case : and containing strictures upon Mr. Baynton's treatise on that disorder / by J. B. Estlin.

  • Estlin, John Bishop.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on diseased spine : illustrated by a case : and containing strictures upon Mr. Baynton's treatise on that disorder / by J. B. Estlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    cases in support of this practice, a very good one has been published by Dr. Armstrong, in the ninth volume of this Journal. Yet all the evidence we have of the efficacy of this treatment will go but little way in justi- fying Mr. Baynton's belief, that drains are not generally, if they are ever, necessary for the curing of such diseases. It must be remembered, that occasionally cases will be met with, which will baffle every attempt of the surgeon to cure them, whatever plan he may pursue. We must not expect unvaried success; and it is no argument against the general use of issues, that every person does not recover in whom they have been employed. There is an objection which Mr. Baynton makes with regard to the employment of issues, which I cannot avoid replying to. He speaks of the suffering experienced by patients who are treated by issues; and considers the escape from them, procured by his mode of treatment, as an important circumstance in recommendation of his plan. The lying, he says, page 38, upon open ulcers of considerable extent, filled with peas, beans, or other hard bodies, will be prevented by the adoption of this plan of treatment, which he calls more simple, more reasonable, and much more agreeable. This appeal to the prejudices of the ignorant may be opposed by ob- jecting to the suffering, which, in some cases, his own method must inevitably inflict; for in the fourth case, that of a young lady, (page 84) it is said, five of the vertebrae were found in a diseased protruded state, and so exquisitely tender, as to render pressure almost insupportable; and yet this young lady was condemned to lie with her whole weight upon this exquisitely tender part, which was still more exposed to the pains of pressure by its being more prominent than any other part of the