164 



of very young children, by means of the gorget. Of this number, 

 V2 were cured, 10 died, and 1 is set down as relieved. 



A few among us have resorted to the bi-lateral method, and 

 within a few years the profession have been favoured with valuable 

 papers on modifications of it by Drs. Warren and Stevens. So far 

 as your committee can ascertain, the first operation in our country 

 by this method was performed by Dr. Wm. Ashmead, of Philadel- 

 phia, in 1832, nearly eight years after it was brought prominently 

 into notice by Dupuytren at the Hotel Dieu of Paris. The case 

 proved successful, and in that and the succeeding years, the same 

 gentlemen operated upon three other patients. Dr. Ogier of Charles- 

 ton repeated the operation in 1835 without any knowledge of its 

 having been previously done in the country, and since that period 

 it is known to your committee to have been practiced by Dr. Ste- 

 vens, Eve, the Warrens, Mussey, May, Watson, Hoffman, Post and 

 Pancoast. 



Lithotripsy, too, continues to have its advocates, and though dur- 

 ing the past year no extended notice of it has been met with, yet 

 it is not to be inferred that it is without warm advocates, or fails to 

 occupy the attention of our practitioners and teachers. We know, 

 on the contrary, that earnest endeavours are still making to relieve 

 calculous patients by this means, and have reason to think that in 

 portions of the country the operators by this method may be said 

 to be on the increase. 



It was intended to have included in this Report, a brief history of 

 the introduction, progress and present condition of the crushing 

 operation among us, accompanied with an extensive statistical table 

 of cases of lithotripsy, which would have permitted of some com- 

 parison being made between its results, and those derived from the 

 cutting operation. In consequence, however, of the lamented death 

 of one of their colleagues, Dr. Randolph, who had engaged to fur- 

 nish important materials and aid in this inquiry, the committee 

 have been unable to accomplish their design. That gentleman, as 

 is well known, was one of the earliest who adopted the method in 

 our country, and by his exertions in teaching, and skill in the per- 

 formance of the operation, did much to introduce it generally among 

 us, and it is to be regretted that the fruits of his extensive expe- 

 rience, and a statement of his reverses and success, which latter is 

 said upon competent authority never to have been excelled, had not 

 been completed by him. 



As indicative of an actual advance in the science of surgery, 



