A week after, Dr. M. met the surgeon, and inquired after the patient.
“O, oui,” said the butcher, shrugging his shoulders. “Poor old fellow! He grew pious, and suddenly died.”
And this was by one of the first surgeons of France, on the authority of Dr. Valentine Mott.
Cases are cited in Paget’s “Surgical Pathology,” of tumors being removed by the knife from four to nine times, and returning, proving fatal, in every instance.
Cur?
Yes, “Why?” A man’s strength is in his blood, Samson notwithstanding. Then if you take away his blood, you lessen his chances of recovery, because you have lessened his strength.
“Cum sanguinem detrahere oportet, deliberatione indiget,” said Aretæus, a Greek physician of the first century. (“When bleeding is required, there is need of deliberation.”)
“Cur?” (why) was a favorite inquiry of Dr. Abernethy’s.
“We recollect a surgeon being called to a gentleman who was taken suddenly ill. The medical attendant, being present, asked the surgeon,—
“‘Shall I bleed him at once, sir?’