I should greatly exceed the limits prescribed to this inquiry, should I mention how much pain and misery have been relieved, and how often death has been baffled in his attempts upon human life, by several late improvements in old, and the discovery of new remedies in surgery. I shall briefly name a few of them.
In cases of blindness, from a partial opacity of the cornea, or from a closure of the natural pupil, a new pupil has been made; and where the cornea has been partially opaque, the opening through the iris has been formed, opposite to any part of it, which retained its transparency.
The cure of fractures has been accelerated by blood-letting, and, where the union of a broken bone has not taken place from a defect of bony matter, it has been produced by passing a seton between the fractured ends of the bone, and effecting a union thereby between them. Luxations, which have long resisted both force and art, have been reduced in a few minutes, and without pain, by bleeding at deliquium animi.
Old sores have been speedily healed, by destroying their surfaces, and thereby placing them in the condition of recent accidents.
The fruitless application of the trepan, in concussions of the brain, has been prevented by copious bleeding, and a salivation.
A suppression of urine has been cured, by the addition of a piece of a bougie to a flexible catheter.
Strictures in the urethra have been removed by means of a caustic, also, in a more expeditious way, by dividing them with a lancet.
Hydrocele has been cured by a small puncture, and afterwards exciting inflammation and adhesion by an injection of wine into the tunica vaginalis testis.
The popliteal aneurism and varicose veins have both been removed by operations that were unknown a few years ago.