A Treatise Concerning Civil Government

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ...Surgery, came to my hand I was very forcibly struck with the originality of his proposal; and, from all that I was acquainted with as to the pathology of the affection, I saw no valid reason to dissent from his views, or refuse to accept the truthfulness of his statements as he propounded them to the profession. On the morning of the 25th Nov., 1861, I prepared to operate after the following manner: --The patient was placed upon the operating table, in the horizontal position, on her back, and brought under the influence of chloroform. During its administration she was comparatively quiet, yet not so tranquillized as might have been desired during the steps of an operation surrounded with considerable difficulty, owing to several causes--the natural bulk of the limb from excess of fatty deposition, the additional increase of its volume from abnormal changes, and, as a sequence from both, the great depth of the artery from the surface. Other hindrances were likewise foreseen, as shall presently be detailed. But to proceed with the operation. The thigh was very slightly flexed, and rotated outwards, and steadied so by assistants, above and below; the knife was first laid on its edge, applied about an inch and three quarters below Poupart's ligament, and at a point midway between the spine of the ilium and the crest of the pubes. This was selected as the proper position--that in which the vessel might be found, for no pulsation marked its course, it lay so deep and buried; the artery could only be even imperfectly felt passing over the pubes, for it there seemed to recede so suddenly from the surface, deep down into the limb, that no information or assistance as to its course could be derived from the heart's impulse transmitted to its...