Cases of dropsical ovaria removed by the large abdominal section / by D. Henry Walne.

  • Walne, D. Henry (Daniel Henry), 1796-1866.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of dropsical ovaria removed by the large abdominal section / by D. Henry Walne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    and the adventurous spirit of Dr. M'Dowal and Dr. Nathan Smith—viz. the cure of an otherwise hope- less disease—had the manly candour, and moral courage equalling his surgical intrepedity, to give to the professional world a full narrative of his unsuc- cessful attempts ; coupled, however, with one trium- phant case of the major operation, in which, through an opening of twelve inches into the abdo- minal cavity, he had succeeded in removing a large diseased ovarium, complicated with ascites to the extent of a gallon and a half of serous fluid. His patient so completely recovered, that she paid a visit to London by the invitation of Dr. Blundell, and the most incredulous were convinced of the practica- bility, at least, of this form of operation. Still, however, an extraordinary apathy on the subject continued to affect the profession generally in Great Britain ; and I was not aware, until after the publi- cation of my first case*, that the operation had ever, till within a few months, been repeated by a British surgeon. I had reason to believe that it never had been performed at all in England before Dr. Charles Clay, of Manchester, on the 12th of September, 1842, achieved his first case; nor in London, until, on November the 6th of the same year, I operated in the first of the cases about to be recorded. It has been since shewn that Dr. Granville had operated unsuccessfully in 1827; and that he had attempted a similar operation in the previous year, but, on * In December 1842.