550 Surgical Cases in tlie Finstury Dispensary. 



Yery ? but experience militates against this opinion ; for I 

 have invariably seen, that patients recover in less time from 

 the most severe operations when in the bosom of their fami- 

 lies, even in distress, than when taken to a hospital where 

 all apparent inconvenience is removed. But in hernia this 

 fact is particularly illustrated, and may be referred to two 

 causes: 1st, the state of the patient's mind in leaving his 

 family ; and 2dly, the time in which the operation is per- 

 formed, as patients in general cannot be prevailed on to 

 leave their home for an hospital till they are in the greatest 

 danger; and as the success of this operation depends on its 

 early performance, all delay bevond the necessary attempts 

 at reduction tends to increase the danger. " I have often 

 had occasion to lament that I had performed the operation 

 too late, but never that I had performed it too soon *;" 



It is much to be regretted, that a small fund is not pro- 

 vided and annexed to all charitable institutions for the pur- 

 pose of supplying the poor with trusses, by which many 

 lives would be saved, and a painful operation frequently pre- 

 vented. This might be done at a very inconsiderable ex- 

 pense, comparatively speaking with the benefit that would 

 accrue to society from its adoption ; as the same truss could 

 be procured for seven shillings for which the patient is 

 obliged to pay a guinea or even a guinea-and-a-half, to the 

 great distress of his family; and which in the majority of 

 cases is totally out of his power to spare, be the danger 

 ever so great. 



It is my intention to resume this subject in a subsequent 

 report, and to make some observations on the hernia which 

 sometimes takes place in the omentum and in the mesen- 

 tery. 



Creville Street, Ratton Garden, 

 Sept. 16, 1806. 



* Mr. Hey's (of T.reds) Observations on Snrwfv: 



I.V. JE.r- 



