Acupressure : a new method of arresting surgical hœmorrhage and of accelerating the healing of wounds / by James Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acupressure : a new method of arresting surgical hœmorrhage and of accelerating the healing of wounds / by James Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    no advantage, but the very reverse, to the patient him- self. For assuredly, in accordance with the old maxim of Galen, dolor in dolentihus inutilis est. And at the present hour any deliberate and causeless infliction on a fellow-being of such sufferings as Professor Wilson so pathetically describes, amounts to nothing but profes- sional inhumanity, for on the part of professional men the infliction of aH unnecessary jDain is simple cruelty. Whilst anaesthetics save the patient from the agonies produced by the mutilation and cutting of his li^dng flesh, they at the same time preserve his strength, and enhance his chances of recovery. But surgical anaes- thetics are not a boon merely to the surgical patient; they are a boon also to the surgeon himself—as they enable him to accomplish his knife-work far more calmly and dehberately ; and they give him the power of operating in cases and under circumstances, where previously operative interference was almost impos- sible. Professor Marx of Gottingen, writing in a more hopeful spirit than Professor Velpeau, long since avowed his belief that, in regard to the possible mitigation of surgical pain, the multiplied experiments to prevent pain, in surgical operations, which bear so delightful a testimony to the humanity of their authors, will certainly in the course of time be crowned with success.^ And it is pleasant to reflect with what celerity the practice has spread over the surface of the earth. In Great Britain there are various estabhshments for the manu- facture of chloroform. I know of one—^that of Messrs. ' Marx.—See Ids letter to Herman Boerhaave, in his Ake- sios, Dr Macness's translation, p. 329.