134 (hi the State of Medicine in 



which I remarked to him ; but he stoutly denied the possibility 

 of his having committed so unfortunate a mistake." 



Generally, this gentleman, and others who perform similar 

 operations, avoid including the spermatic chord in the ligature, 

 by pushing both it and the testicle into the abdominal cavity. 

 The ancient cruel method of using the actual cautery, to pro- 

 duce the inflammation necessary to close the hernial aperture, is 

 now seldom resorted to. Some of the rupture doctors affect all 

 the state of our ancient quacks ; when they enter a town, they 

 proclaim their approach with sound of trumpet, and ostenta- 

 tiously display, like a standard, a long pole, from which hang 

 the numerous hernial sacs they have amputated. 



Hernia and the stone, probably on account of the pain they 

 occasion, are the only two diseases in which the Turks permit 

 operations. Calculus is very frequent in some provinces of Tur- 

 key, particularly Macedonia, Epirus, and Thessaly ; and Dr 

 Oppenheim mentions several instances where the disposition to 

 the disease seemed to be hereditary. The operation of lithotomy 

 always used is that described by Celsus, formerly called cutting 

 on the gripe, or the lesser apparatus. The after treatment is 

 altogether neglected, antiphlogistic remedies never applied, and 

 the absurd regulation enforced of keeping the patient from 

 sleeping for four-and-twenty hours after the operation. This is 

 effected by means of music and various noises, perpetually kept 

 up in his chamber. Unfavourable as are all these circumstances, 

 the mortality is by no means so great as might be expected, and 

 Dr Oppenheim saw many large stones thus extracted with a 

 happy result. The Turks, he observes, are much less liable 

 than the Franks to suffer bad consequences from wounds or 

 operations ; this was strongly exemplified among the wounded 

 of the Russian and Turkish armies ; the habitual abstinence of 

 the latter from spirituous liquors, and their moderation in the 

 use of animal food, may contribute, he thinks, to render the con- 

 sequences of inflammation less violent and dangerous. Diseases 

 of the testicles and their appendages are very frequent, and Dr 

 Oppenheim justly attributes this to the narrow curved shape of 

 the Turkish saddles, and their peculiar mode of riding, in con- 

 sequence of which, the testicles receive a great shock each time 



