0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

378 RECENT TIMES.
influence on politics; MlCHELET has, as is well known,
divided the reign of this Monarch into the periods avant et
apres la fistule* The debates upon the performance of
the operation led to the invention of several fistula-knives
amongst which that of POTT with SAVIGNY'S improvements
was most esteemed. Colotomy with the object of the formation
of an artificial anus in congenital closure of the
natural outlet was performed in 1783 for the first time.
Among the methods of performing lithotomy the sectio
lateralis was most extensively adopted. CHESELDEN
modified the procedure in some measure and FRERE COME
recommended the use of the lithotome cache. The high
incision over the pubes was less frequently employed.
Lithotrity was described by ClUCCl : he made use of a
grooved instrument with toothed blades resembling
ClVlALE's lithotrite and enclosed in a sheath. In the
treatment of urethral stricture the elastic bougies recommended
by DARAN which swelled in the urethra were in
great favour.
HENDRIK VAN DEVENTER, A. J. VENEL and others
sketched out the principles of orthopaedics. About the
same time HENDRIK VAN ROONHUYSE and afterwards
TULP made the first attempts to cure caput obstipum by
dividing the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle. In 1784 M. G.
THILENIUS performed the first division of the tendo Achillis
for club-foot.
Surgical pathology received valuable additions at the
hands of PERCIVAL POTT who made chronic inflammation
of the joints or tumor albus the object of careful observation,
as he did also the subject of vertebral caries, the
curvature resulting from which disease is named after him;.
while J. L. PETIT drew attention to the suppurative osteomyelitis
which supervenes upon wounds. PETIT and JOHN
HUNTER also studied in greater detail the processes which
occur in the tissues in thrombosis, suppuration, cicatriza­
tion and granulation.
* HJ-ESER op. cit. ii, 432.