234 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
we say, there are few practitioners of human or veterinary 
surgery who have not, at some time or other, felt the difficulty 
of closing a sinuous or fistulous passage, especially when so 
situated as to preclude the possibility of summarily ending the 
difficulty by laying it open with the knife. 
Such a case occurred a few months since to Mr. John 
Marshall, one of the assistant surgeons to University College 
Hospital. A man had a long sinus in the substance of one of 
his cheeks. It opened internally into the mouth, and externally 
on the skin. The very oblique direction in which it traversed 
the cheek rendered its track so long that, even considering the 
failure which had attended all previous treatment, incision, on 
the score of severity, was out of the question. At first sight it 
appeared likely that good might result from passing a heated 
wire through the sinus. A little reflection, however, soon sug¬ 
gested that actual cauterization could be of no use if practised 
in the ordinary manner; for the wire would have been cooled 
• 
long before it had made its way through the whole track. It 
then occurred to Mr. Marshall to pass a cold wire into the 
sinus, and to heat it while in. This he did by connecting the 
poles of a galvanic battery with the free ends of a platinum 
wire, which he passed through the narrow track. This done, 
but few seconds elapsed before the wire was red hot; in which 
state he suffered it to remain for a few seconds, and then, after 
breaking the circle, removed it, trusting to the process of granu¬ 
lation and contraction, so valid after burns, to obliterate the 
sinus. His sanguine expectation was realised, and he then 
entertained the idea that this mode of cauterization might prove 
valuable in other surgical procedures. Accordingly, he extended 
its use, and in many cases with decided advantage. Of course, 
his attempts have not always been productive of perfect results ; 
but for this we are not going to join the ranks of those who, 
because not fortunate in hitting on original ideas themselves, 
deny all that is new unless quite perfect. Had this spirit been 
sufFered to prevail, we should have had to recount, among its 
other serious fruits, that of having deprived mankind of 
Hunter’s operation for aneurism, which at first failed, even 
m the hands of its immortal originator. 
