SECTION E INTERNAL MEDICINE 



(Hall 13, September 23, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR FREDERICK C. SHATTUCK, Harvard University. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, F. R. S., University of Cam- 

 bridge. 



PROFESSOR WILLIAM S. THAYER, Johns Hopkins University. 

 SECRETARY: DR. R. C. CABOT, Boston, Mass. 



THE HISTORICAL RELATIONS OF MEDICINE AND 



SURGERY 



BY THOMAS CLIFFORD ALLBUTT 



[Thomas Clifford Allbutt, Regius Professor of Physic, Cambridge, England, b. 

 Dewsbury, England, 1836. M.A., M.D., Cambridge; (Hon.) D.Sc. Oxford; 

 (Hon.) M.D. Dublin; (Hon.) D.Sc. Victoria; (Hon.) LL.D. Glasgow; F. R. C. P. 

 London; (Hon.) F. R. C. P. Ireland. Physician, Leeds, England, General 

 Infirmary, 1865-85; Consulting Physician, also, to the Belgrave Hospital for 

 Children, London; Commissioner in Lunacy, 1889-93; Physician to the 

 Addenbrpoke's Hospital, Cambridge; Fellow of the Royal Society; Fellow 

 of the Linnean Society of London; Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Lon- 

 don; Honorary Member of the New York Academy of Medicines. Author of 

 many medical works; Science and Medieval Thought; Historical Relations of 

 Medicine and Surgery.} 



IT was, I think, in the year 1864, when I was a novice on the 

 honorary staff of the Leeds General Infirmary, that the unsurgical 

 division of us was summoned in great solemnity to discuss a method 

 of administration of drugs by means of a needle. This method having 

 obtained some vogue, it behoved those who practiced "pure" medi- 

 cine to decide whether this operation were consistent wiith the 

 traditions of purity. For my part, I answered that the method had 

 come up early, if not originally in St. George's Hospital, and in the 

 hands of a house physician, Dr. C. Hunter; that I had accustomed 

 myself already to the practice, and proposed to continue it; more- 

 over, that I had recently come from the classes of Professor Trous- 

 seau, who, when his cases demanded such treatment, did not hesi- 

 tate himself to perform paracentesis of the pleura, or even incision 

 of this sac or of the pericardium. As for lack, not of will, but of skill 

 and nerve, I did not intend myself to perform even minor operations, 

 my heresy, as one traitorous in thought only, was indulgently ignored; 

 and we were set free to manipulate the drug needle, if we felt dis- 

 posed to this humble service. About this time certain Fellows of the 

 London College of Physicians, concerned with the diseases of women, 

 had been making little operations about the uterus, and meeting 



