1835.] Baron Dupaytren. 89 



at this decision, as the symptoms did not appear to them 

 to require such a serious cure. But Dupuytren had de- 

 tected (or divined some might say) the presence of an 

 ahscess in the cerebral matter. The bone was sawn through ; 

 no diseased appearance was exhibited; the dura matter 

 was healthy; it was cut through and still no disease appeared. 

 It was then that Dupuytren, with a degree of boldness 

 which has seldom been equalled in the annals of surgery, 

 plunged a bistoury into the substance of the brain. An 

 abundant discharge of purulent matter was the conse- 

 quence ! 



The diagnosis of abscess in the iliac fossa is a difficult 

 matter, yet Dupuytren gave admirable rules for detecting 

 it, and by this means saved the life of a commissary. 

 Numerous other instances of his diagnostic powers are 

 well remembered. A lady had been treated during several 

 years for cancer of the uterus. A surgeon of distinction 

 had so designated the disease. Dupuytren was at last com- 

 sulted ; he declared that the disease was polypus, and 

 that an operation would be attended with perfect success. 

 He operated, and in three days the lady went to the opera. 



A woman was admitted into the Hotel Dieu with con- 

 siderable swelling of one of the tonsils. All those who saw 

 the woman before the arrival of Dupuytren, considered the 

 case to be one of simple inflammation of the gland. He 

 came and gave it as his opinion that a cyst existed in the 

 tonsil, and that there were other cysts in some part, more 

 or less distant from the throat, which had a great tendency 

 to inflame by a kind of sympathy which united them. The 

 cyst was removed to the great astonishment of those assem- 

 bled. Next day erysipelas of the face appeared, and pain 

 in one of the kidneys. '' It is in this organ, said the 

 great surgeon, that the second cyst exists ; it is inflamed, 

 and we are in danger of losing our patient ; " a circum- 

 stance which happened notwithstanding the best directed 

 treatment. 



The inspection after death confirmed the accuracy of his 

 diagnosis. 



It has been said that Dupuytren gave his diagnosis always 

 with great rapidity, and some gave credit to the idea of his 

 infallibility. 



In many cases, it is well known, that a single glance 



