History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

General Surgery 183less than 15 pounds. Gum mastic was also difficult to obtain and much ofthe material sold was spurious. Dr. Andrews reported on over 20 cases; 2were cured completely, 8 were improved and 7 were total failures; 1 wassupposedly greatly benefitted by sulphur alone. He concluded that everycancer, in proper location, should be cut out early and the remedy (if any)taken afterward. Thus was shown the hard-boiled wisdom of our Illinoissurgeons. This dictum may well be repeated today.Dr. Roswell Park read a paper on "The Surgical Anatomy of the Sheathsof the Palmar Tendons." He had performed experiments using injectionsof plaster of paris,wax, paraffine and glycerine and then had made dissections.He gave a scholarly report on phlegmon in the sheaths.This was followed by a paper on Listerism and carbolic acid by Dr.Truesdale who stressed the point that the action of the acid, in additionto being antiseptic, was also hemostatic, anesthetic and antiphlogistic. (Itseems remarkable that they did not have more cases of gangrene of theextremities, as they often left limbs wrapped in 3 per cent carbolic acidsolution for hours or days. Possibly gangrenous cases were never reported.)1882A paper on "Phenic Acid in Cancer" was given by Dr. E. Wyllys Andrewsof Chicago, and one on "The Diagnostic Peculiarities of MalignantGrowths" by Dr. Christian Fenger.Dr. E. W. Lee of Chicago gave the report of the Committee on Surgery.He believed that the year had been unusually progressive on account ofthe meeting of the International Medical Congress in London in August,1881. The subject of antiseptic surgery was uppermost in all minds, andhe said that a year previously the hissing of the carbolic spray might havebeen heard in every operating theater, but 18 months after Brun's edicthad gone forth ("fort mit den Spray"), the reports of surgical operationsshowed as good results without as with the spray. Irrigation with carbolizedwater was employed instead. To Lister, however, must be given full creditfor the application and success of antiseptic methods, and 1880-1881 marksthe full acceptance of antiseptic methods and the abandonment of thecarbolic spray, thus really leading to the inception of aseptic surgery.Lee continued his report by saying that the promotion of primary unionof operative wounds was also discussed at the London Congress, and itwas at this meeting that Letievant of Lyons, France, insisted upon the primeimportance of disinfection of the hands, instruments, etc., as a means ofavoiding putrefactive fermentation. Tait of England had renounced thecarbolic spray and said, backing up Esmarch's dressing: "What can bemore dirty, in the ordinary acceptance of the term, than a wound leftcovered up with the same dressing for weeks together, the original blood