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376 RECENT TIMES.
NER and ELSE went so far as to perform ligature of the
carotid in the year 1775.
The amputations performed were chiefly those of the
foot, leg, forearm, and hand ; above the elbow and knee
they were practised less frequently. The methods of performing
these operations were somewhat enriched by the
introduction of the double and triple incision, of the
flap-operation, and of the process of cutting the tissues
in the form of a hollow cone, the object aimed at being
the preservation of,enough of the soft parts to form a
covering for the stump. Amputation was, however, performed
more frequently than there was any occasion for.
Thus SCHMUCKER states that in 1738 he saw in the Hotel
Dieu at Paris a patient both of whose legs had been
amputated on account of simple fractures. Conservative
surgeons opposed this abuse which had arisen under
the influence of the French school, and endeavoured to
confine amputation within reasonable limits. The increase
of anatomical knowledge and the improvement in the
technical details of operations encouraged surgeons to perform
exarticulations. A. PAR£ had already practised this
method at the elbow-joint; at the knee it was first performed
by FABRY VON HlLDEN and at the shoulder by
MORAND and LE DRAN. The method of exarticulation in
the tarsus named after CHOPART was made public in 1791.
Exarticulation at the hip-joint was attempted but given up
again on account of the unsatisfactory results attending it.
Resections of certain bones or portions of bones were also
performed ; for instance of the humerus by CH. WHITE,
of the clavicle by CASSEBOHM, while the first successful
excisions of joints were practised by FILKIN (1762) and
PARK (1781) in the case of the knee joint; and by CH.
WHITE (1768) and J. BENT (1771) in the case of the
shoulder.
Trephining was frequently performed for the most trivial
causes ; it is inconceivable, how readily this measure was
resorted to. It was performed 17 times, on PHILIP WILLIAM