G28 



srncERY. 



the custom to greatly limit tlio period during which son, Isaac Hays, Hugh Hodge, John Rhoa Barton, 



crushing operations were carried on, several sitting Geo. I!. \\' 1 William W. Get hard, William !' 



being necessary Ix-foro the oporulion was completed, Sr., George VV.Norris, and other* whose teachin- 



thti maximum time of 8, 10, 15, or 120 minu'es being writings have in no small degree aided in Hi. 



allowed l>y various surgeons for tlu> crushing of the iv.-> of medical science. It would have been pha.s- 



stone. Dr. Bigolovr showed that with prop, it to point out in detail the work of each of 



and gentleness the crashing could be completed at gentlemen : to dwell on the rcmaiUable ai.ii .1 



tting, even when it required several hours to IK d talents di-p'ave.: i, ath at the 



effect tliis, and that at the same time (lie uh..i<- mass 

 of di-bris eould be evacuated instead of being left in 

 the bladder to pass out with the urine. Dr. Bigelow 

 greatly improved the lithotrite in several important 

 partiealars and invented an evacuating apparatus 



age of thirty-five, just after his election to the chair 

 of anatomy in the university, rcmovi -il one of tho 

 most promising teacl MI Philadelphia. 



He is suid to have lectured on operative surgeiy, 

 given pructieul instruction in materia niedica. 



far superior to anything previously employed. His onstrated anatomical details in the diaoeoting-room, 



discovery was greatly facilitated by the observation and examined in physiology in the same day, with 

 of Dr. Fessenden Otis, of New York, who had pre- j equal satisfaction to his pupils. We are indebted 

 viously shown that the calibre of the male urethra j to Dr. Chapman, not only for inmimerabl 

 was far greater than had been supposed, and that 

 catheters and bougies of much larger si/.e than wvn> 

 : ly employed could be used with entire safety. 



Extirpation of the coccyx for what was then known 

 as coccygeal neuralgia was first done by Dr. J. C. 

 Nott, of Mobile, although later Sir Joseph Simpson, 

 not knowing of Nott's essay, d ^crihed the same dis- 

 ease under the name of coccygodynia, and advocated 

 the same method of treatment. J. Marion Kims in 

 atrodiieed to the medical world his operation 

 for vcsieo-vaginal fistula, which has from tliat day to 

 this maintained its position as an operative ] 

 nre and ha-s perhaps done as much to restore to 

 health and happiness large numbers of suffering 

 women as any other operation in the entire domain 

 of gynaecology. The relief of chronic cystitis by 

 permanent drainage of the bladder should also be ac- 

 credited to the inventive genius of Sims, although at 

 about the same time the same procedure was em- 

 ployed by Nathan Bozeman and Thomas Addis Em- 

 inett. Parvin's operation for the cure of urethro-vag- 

 inal fistula, the so-called Battey's operation, and tho 

 operation of gastro-elytrotomy, have all been either 

 originally conceived or greatly improved by Amer- 

 ican surgeons. While considering the department- 

 of surgery known as gynaecology, mention should of 

 course be made of the forceps and the lever-]>essary 

 of Hodge, and the speculum, uterine repositor, anil 

 probe of Sims. 



In ophthalmic surgery should be mentioned the 

 ingenious method of advancement of the lateral eye- 

 muscles deviled by Dr. A. E. Prince. This has re- 

 ceived very wido adoption. A number of modifica- 

 tions of the various plastic operations upon tho lids 

 have appeared from time to time in the hands of 

 American surgeons; notably Given, of Sr. Louis. 



The method devised by the late Dr. C. B. Agnew, 

 of New York, for removing a leas dislocated into the 

 vitreous, with the aid of a bidont, d ntion ; 



a* do the able experimental res. Knapp, of 



New York, an 1 Weeks, of New York, in an: 



; the. discovery of tho bacillus of acute 

 conjunctiva! catarrh by Weeks, and his useful in- 

 vestigations of tho bacteriology of xerosis conjunc- 

 tive. The throe best ophthai' which have 

 emanated from Anieiiea:i inventors since the i-iiro- 

 dnction, years ago, of Dr. Loriug's instruments, are 



and for brilliant medical teaching, but for 

 tablishment in 1820 of the best medical pe- 

 riodical in America, if not in the world, Tin- A 

 can Journal fif tl, iici ward so ably 



edited by the Drs. Hoys, father and son. The first 

 number bore on the title-] ago the quotation from 

 Sydney Smith already alluded to. A special edition 

 of this journal, with a single exception the oldest 

 medical periodical in the English language, is now 

 published in London for the benefit of British 

 readers. To Dr. Gerhard belongs the honor of hav- 

 ing been the first to point out clearly the distinction 

 between typhus and typhoid fevi r. a differentiation 

 which has caved thousands of lives. Much well- 

 deserved piaise could be written of the contribu- 

 tions of Barton to mechanical surgery and of his 

 original operation for the cure of bony stiffening of 

 the joints, the parent of all the orthopedic and sub- 

 cutaneous surgery of the present day ; of the ad- 

 vances mode by Nonis in conservative surgery: of 

 therarodiagi)ostie!:i -umen and brilliant clinical abil- 

 ities as teacher nr.d practitioner of the elder IVp- 

 f Wood's great labors in practical medicina 

 Mid therapeutics, his undying record still existing in 

 what is probably the most, successful medical book 

 ever published, Tim I'mt-il >7<//<-x Ilisjimtsatwy. John 

 K. Mitchell's inquiries into the absorption of fluids 

 and the origin of malaria weie markedly in advance 

 of their day, in seme lespeets almost prophetic, 

 while Hodge's invention of the Icver-pcssaiy, and 

 Hare's of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, eanm>: 

 unnoticed. Dr. Gross, in his recently pnblislud 

 autobiography, has ^ivi n us a list of his contribu- 

 tions to medical Bcience, a list of which any surgeon, 

 or, indeed, any two or three snie.ons, might bo 

 proud ; but his researches on wounds of the intes- 

 tines deserve special mention. 



In 1824 the Jefferson Med'cnl College, which was 

 in its origin an offshoot of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, was fi .undid by Drs. MeClcllan, J!. 



ii. all graduates of the university, 



and in 1W.") and l.^-d the first couise of lectures was 

 given. A number of distinguished men have 1 en 

 :ed with it from that day to this, notably 

 Mutter, the founder of the Mutter Museum and 

 lectureship at the College of Physicians; John K. 

 Mitchell, the father (.f Dr. S. Weir Mitchell ; Joseph 

 Pancoast. Charles D. Meigs, J. M. Da Costa, and 

 Prof. S. D. Cross. 



ins hardly possible, and is perhaps hardly 

 proper, in tin's article to enter with any detail into 

 the history of more recent achievements by Ameri- 

 can surgeons. The earlier work of Dr. D. Hayes 



those d. .vised by Randall, Jackson, and Itislcy, of 

 Philadelphia. 



Medical teaching was even during the last century, 

 in ei-i tain part-s of the Eastern and Middle S:-, 

 be favorably cora]>ared with much of the instruction 



at European schools. At the University of . _, 



! ylvaiii.i, the centre of American medical edu- A '.'new, in the improved operations upon vesico-vagi- 



cution at this time, or connected with the IVnnsyl- nal fistula and of lacerated perineum, was most 



vaniii and Philadelphia hospitals, wore to be found brilliant, and his teachings have had a lasting influ- 



during the , rg O f this century many of the ence as regards those operations, while his work as 



men whoso names are still familiar to the profession a general surgeon has probably never been surpassed 



throughout the world : John SyngDorsey, Nathaniel either as regards the ground covered, the results ob- 

 Chapman, W. P. Dcwees, Robei-t Hare, Souiuel Jack- ( Uiued, or the sound judgment displayed The 



