318 SURGERY 



covery has had upon the human race. It has eliminated local pain 

 in a wound, it has prevented general fever, it has made possible 

 many new life-saving operations, it has saved millions of lives. 



The influence of antiseptics upon the increase of surgical opera- 

 tions, and the decrease of mortality attending them, is difficult to 

 estimate. Suffice it to say, by way of illustration, that in the Boston 

 City Hospital prior to the introduction of antiseptics there were, in 

 1878, according to Halsted's statement, only 132 operations per- 

 formed, while in the same hospital, in 1903, there were 2719. In the 

 New York Hospital, in 1878, there were 142 operations, in 1903, 

 there were 1680. How different and justly so the prevailing idea of 

 the day as regards the operative part of surgery. Prior to the past 

 century, operations were looked upon as a tacit confession of failure, 

 and such they commonly were. To-day, they are properly recognized 

 as the grand triumph of a new science. These facts tell the story of 

 the progress of surgery more forcibly and eloquently than could be 

 done by any spoken discourse, no matter how carefully prepared. 



3. The Discovery and Practice of Modern and Surgical Therapeutics 

 and of New Diagnostic Aids. . This part of our subject embraces all 

 the non-operative methods of treatment of surgical affections which 

 have been devised during the past century. It is obvious that within 

 the limits of this address mere mention only can be made of the 

 various remedial agencies and the general results which have been 

 obtained by their application. 



The Rontgen rays were discovered about 1896, and the civilized 

 world was startled by a discovery which ranks after anesthetics and 

 antiseptics as one of the greatest advances in the science of surgery. 

 Rontgen demonstrated that the Rontgen rays would pass through 

 the human body and throw a shadow picture on a photographic 

 plate. In other words, that the rays had the power to pass through 

 substances which were opaque to ordinary rays of light. Bullets can 

 be seen and located in the body, and bones can be distinctly outlined, 

 because they are denser than the soft tissues. Fractures and diseases 

 of the bones, dislocations and diseases of joints, as well as foreign 

 bodies in the economy, can be observed. Tuberculous processes in 

 the lungs can be distinguished, and the heart can be seen actually 

 pulsating. Gall-stones can be made out in the gall-bladder, and 

 calculi can be detected in the pelvis of the kidney and in the urinary 

 bladder. Sarcoma, myelitis, syphilitic osteitis, bone abscess, peri- 

 osteal and central origin of bone tumors can be diagnosticated. 

 Carcinoma, tuberculosis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis can be made 

 out with distinctness. Brain tumors, notably gumma, Hodgkin's 

 disease, aneurism of the large vessels, and glandular enlargements 

 and growths in the mediastinum can be demonstrated. 



The Rontgen rays have also been used with a view to the cure of 



