A dissertation on the inutility of the amputation of limbs

by Johann Ulrich Bilguer

[35] What Mr. Bilguer says with respect to the wounded Prussians, is but too applicable to those of every army.

SECT. [XXX].

I ought now to say something concerning a contusion, or echymosis; I shall confine my remarks particularly to that kind where there is a great quantity of extravasated fluid diffused under the skin, such as we often see, when a ball, without breaking the skin, injures it to such a degree, that it looks like a mortified eschar, and at the same time dislocates, fractures, or shatters the bones belonging to the part. When a surgeon meets with a contusion of this kind, the treatment is not greatly different from that recommended in a mortification; for the skin must be treated exactly like a mortified slough, must be laid open by several deep incisions, dressed with the powder mentioned [§ X.] covered with a digestive ointment mixed with a little essence of myrrh, and the part affected, as well as all around it, kept constantly bathed with emollient fomentations, without any ingredient, either stimulating or astringent. With regard to the shattered bones, the same method may be followed as in [§ XX.] If any of them are luxated, they must be reduced, without, however, confining them by the bandages used in ordinary luxations, and which, in this case, would make the necessary incisions uneasy, would prevent the gangrenous sloughs from casting off, and hinder the formation of pus: It is therefore sufficient, after having replaced the bone, to let it remain quite undisturbed; and when the corrupted slough is come off, the sore may be dressed like wounds of the fleshy parts.

SECT. [XXXI].

Some imagine that these violent contusions, accompanied with fractures, require amputation, as the properest method of cure[36]. I shall mention, what seems to me strongly against this opinion. In the first place we must reflect, that the danger of dying, in these cases, does not arise solely from the fluids extravasated in the contused part, but from the violent concussion, which gives a shock, and occasions a general compression of the vessels over all the body, especially the internal ones[37]; and from the vessels being compressed, obstructed or ruptured, proceed extravasation, inflammation and suppuration.

This commotion of the whole body, depends on the external air, which being compressed, condensed, and rapidly pushed on by a ball, moving with vast velocity, acts on the body with greater force, and causes a more violent contusion, than any other substance, even the heaviest has ever done. From thence proceed contusions of the viscera, spitting and vomiting of blood, oppression, cough, pains, inflammations and suppurations internally, a fever, and other complaints which happen after contusions, seemingly slight, and confined to some particular part, but which are, in fact, the consequences of this general, and what may be called invisible, contusion of the whole body[38].

The amputation of the limb does not remedy those accidents; on the contrary, it increases them, by means of the dread the patient feels at the thoughts of amputation, and by the excruciating pain which attends it; thus accelerating that death it was meant to prevent. I therefore boldly affirm, that amputation cannot be of service in those cases, wherein the nature of the parts and the state they are in, forbid it; that in many, it is hurtful, and hastens death; and that in others, even where the patient recovers, it is likewise improper, if he could be cured and the limb preserved; a surgeon is unpardonable who employs it in such a case.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Can it be called curing a limb to take it off altogether?

[37] It has been known long since, that this concussion, or what may be called a general contusion, is one of the principal causes of the danger arising from gunshot wounds, and more or less from those of all kinds of fire arms; but at present I do not recollect to have seen the mechanism of this effect so well explained as in this performance. The rapidity with which the air strikes, compensates what it wants in density: Those who love to reduce every thing to calculation, will be able exactly to determine this effect by the rule of proportion: Supposing on one hand, a stream of air, which has acquired, by the motion of the ball, a given velocity, and which acts upon a man with this degree of velocity; supposing on the other hand, a man falling upon a floor, likewise with a given degree of velocity, the effect will be equal, if the velocity of air, is to the man who falls, as the density of the board is to that of the air; or, more briefly, if the contusing bodies be in an inverse ratio of their densities. I am even induced to believe, that when the velocity is augmented to a certain degree, its effect is augmented in a greater proportion than its increase; or, to speak algebraically, that its effects ought to be expressed by some quality of its degrees; thus the effect of a velocity of 150 degrees, would be to the effect of a velocity of 125, not as 150 : 125 or as 6 : 5 but as the square, or perhaps some other quality of 150, to the square or the correspondent quality of 125.