1797-]° 
tice, and enabled him to judge of cafes . 
by the induétions arifing from his own 
experience. 
In 1779, he invented the bandage now 
in ule for fraétures, by means of which. 
the fragments being kept in a ftate of 
perpetual contaét, become contolidated, 
without the leaft appearance of deform- 
ity, an aimoft inevitable confequence of 
the former mode. 
On his appointment to the place of 
furgeon-inajor to the hofpital de la Coa- 
rité, in 1782, he introduced a new method 
of treatment in oblique fraétures of 
the thigh-bone, and he alfo healed, by 
means of a methodical compreffion, thofe 
various ulcers whofe cure had hitherto 
been attended with great difficulty. In 
addition to this, he fubftituted new 
bandages in fractures of the humerus ‘and 
clavicle, and adopted a new mode of 
treating the hare-lip, fuperior to that 
ufed by Louis. He never recurred to 
amputation but in extreme cafes, when 
there was a certainty that diffolution 
would have foliowed a neglect of the 
operation. 
When a premature death carried off 
FEeRRAND, chief furgeon of the Hésel- 
Dieu in Paris, DEsauLT was confidered 
as the moft proper perfon to fucceed him ; 
and, on the demife of Moreau, the 
whole charge of the hofpital devolved on 
him. After three years of folicitations 
and‘difputes, he, at length, in 1788, pro- 
ceeded in his long-projected {cheme of 
eftablifhing a clinical fchool, and a fpa- 
cious amphitheatre was accordingly 
ereéted for that purpofe. Scarcely had his 
fAirft * courfe commenced, when the num- 
ber of pupils who flocked around him was 


* The bufinefs of the day was condu¢ted in 
the following routine : 
t. A public confultation concerning the indi- 
gent out-patients. 
2. The young practitioners belonging to the 
hofpital read a detailed account of all the in- 
terefting cafes of fuch patients as were to be 
dilcharged that day. 
3. The operations ; each of thefe was pres 
ceded by a differtation on the ftate of the patient, 
who was then carried tothe amphitheatre, where 
DesauLt, attended by his affiftants, performed 
the operation, in prefence of all the pupils. 
4. Argumentative details, by the profeffor, 
either on the dangerous maladies exifting in the 
hofpital, or on the fituation of, the patients on 
whom operations had been jerformed during the 
preceding day. 
§. The d fieCtion of fubje&ts ; and, 
6. A lefture cn iome particular branch of 
pathology. 
MONTHLY 
Mac. No. XXI. 
Original Anecdotes.---Defaul : 
125 
really aftonifhing. Foreigners repaired 
from all parts, and feveral of the neighe 
bouring ftates fent ftudents to Paris, ex- 
prefsly for the purpofe of aflifting at his 
demonitrations. More than 600 auditors 
conftantly attended, in order to learn a 
new fyftem, confifting of a fimple mode 
of treatment, difengaged from ancient 
prejudices, and a complex incoherent 
practice. : 
A few of his improvements are here 
{pecified. 
1. The method of ligature employed 
by the ancients in the cure of umbilical 
hernias of children, having been generally 
omitted in the pradlice of the moderns 3; 
he again introduced and perfeéted this 
mode, and-demonftrated, by his fuccefs, 
its fuperiority over compreflive bandages. 
2. He was one of the firft men in 
France, to extraét the loofe cartilages 
(cartilages flottans) in joints. 
3. He employed a new treatment, that 
of a methodical compreffion, in refpeék 
to fchirrofiries of the redéium; in order 
to which, he introduced a candle, or 
bougie, the fize of which he gradually 
augmented. 
4. He fimplified, and rendered more 
commodious, the reduétion of luxations 
of the humerus. | 
5. Fatal experience having pointed out 
the danger of employing the trepan, In - 
wounds of the head, he fubftituted an- 
other method of treatment (/u/egce 
Pémétique) now adopted by many prac- 
titioners. 
6. He made feveral very ufeful im- 
provements on chirugical inftruments ; 
fuch as thofe employed in the cafes of 
polypus in the womb and noftrils //a 
pince a gaine et des porte-naeuds pour la liga- 
ture des polypes, c.); for cutting through 
obftruéttons in the different cavities (le &:- 
otome) ;and tor the fijiulain ano. In cafes 
of incifion, he introduced the ufe of the 
inftrument (/e gorgeret) invented by Mar- 
chetti well. known among foreigners, 
but almoft totally negle&ted in France 
before this period. 
Heat the fame time retrenched the 
ufe of a great number of fuperfluous 
‘ones, and banifhed all praétices attended 
with greater pain than utility. Avoid- 
ing every thing that was complex, he 
proved that the arc of healing, in imi- 
tation of nature, ought to be fimple in 
its means, and fruitful in its refources. 
In 1791, he publithed lus Yournal de 
Chirugerie, which was edited by his pu- 
pils, and deftined to defcribe the moft in- 
terefting occurrences in his {chool, and 
* alfo 
