What has experimental physiology done for the advancement of the practice of surgery? : an address delivered before the Surgical Society of Ireland, at the opening meeting, 23rd November, 1877 / by Robert McDonnell.

  • McDonnell, Robert, 1828-1889.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What has experimental physiology done for the advancement of the practice of surgery? : an address delivered before the Surgical Society of Ireland, at the opening meeting, 23rd November, 1877 / by Robert McDonnell. 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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    ditions, may excite fever ; in fact, when the blood of a dog, attacked with fever, is injected into the veins of a healthy dog, this animal is attacked with fever. The blood bears with it the ingredients which excite the fever, and each fresh injection causes an exacerbation of the febrile con- dition. Gentlemen, I pity, but I confess I cannot reason with, the man who is unable to see the bearing of these facts on practice. I should as soon think of descanting on the exquisite colouring in one of the stained-glass windows of Cologne Cathedral, to a man suffering from Daltonism. It would be foreign to my purpose to enter even briefly on the consideration of the researches, which more or less directly led up to the practice now-a-days so ably advocated by Professor Lister. I may, however, be permitted to say, that I heartily concur with Dr. Roberts in the views ex- pressed by him in his admirable address delivered at the Manchester meeting of the British Medical Association, when he says—“ It was the distinguished merit of Lister to perceive that these considerations pointed to a means of preventing septicaemia. He argued that if you could pre- vent the access of septic organisms to the wound, or destroy them there, you would prevent decomposition, prevent the production of the septic poison, and thus ob- viate the danger of septicaemia. It is not within the scope of this address to describe the means by which Lister attained this object, still less to pass judgment on his practice ; but I may be permitted to express my belief that the principle on which the treatment is founded is unassail- able. ” But, gentlemen, I have already taxed your patience too long. I have compared a single operation, such as is of frequent occurrence in the present day, with the horrors of bygone times. I have, I hope, shown you that experi- mental physiology has had some share in bringing about the grand result which makes such an operation painless and bloodless, and disarms the convalescence which follows