A dissertation on the inutility of the amputation of limbs

by Johann Ulrich Bilguer

There is at present at the hospital at Torgau, a soldier who had been grievously wounded; the shoulder and arm were very bad, from the extravasation the contusion had occasioned; the scapula and clavicle were entirely shattered; the head of the os humeri dislodged from the glenoid cavity, and pushed downwards; the ligaments having been too violently stretched, now hung loose; and the neighbouring parts, deeply bruised, were covered with a black slough, like a mortification. The contusion and double fracture of the shoulder blade and clavicle are compleatly cured, the head of the os humeri never could be kept in its articulation, on account of the relaxation of the ligaments; the other symptoms are happily removed, but he has a cough, and almost constant fever, with its concomitant symptoms; whence we may conclude that matter is formed in some bowel, probably in the lungs, a consequence resulting from the contusion of the internal parts.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] An infusion of water-germander, and yarrow in water, with the addition of about a sixth or eighth of vinegar, is one of the most proper fomentations in such cases. Tissot.

SECT. [XXXIV].

Every one will easily conceive, that this method of curing limbs that are wounded, fractured and shattered by gun-shot, such as I have been hitherto describing, is accompanied with a great deal of pain, and with murmurs and impatience on the part of the sick; that it requires a very judicious surgeon, and gives him abundance of trouble, care and anxiety; besides, I do not pretend that every patient was saved by it: The following lines are applicable on the occasion:

Non est in medico semper relevetur ut æger,
Interdum docta plus valet arte malum.

But as they are oftener applicable with respect to amputation, the expediency of the method I have recommended, stands nevertheless on a solid foundation. To alleviate the pains and sooth the murmurs of the sick, we must flatter them with hope; as for the wounds made by the incisions, they are commonly necessary at a time when they do not think of complaining or opposing them, and they are much less severe than the horrible gash made by amputation. The objections arising from the difficulty attending this method are happily removed in our hospitals, by the care and humane vigilance which Frederick the Great has exerted to provide his victorious armies with surgeons capable of putting it in practice.

SECT. [XXXV].

I shall here add that with regard to those who have had the thigh or arm carried off by a cannon ball, I do not recollect that any of the first have been brought to our hospital; they doubtless died instantly in the field of battle, in consequence of the hemorrhage. Several of those who had the arm carried off were brought, but the camp surgeons had previously stopt the bleeding, and applied the dressings commonly used after amputation, and we cured them afterwards by the method mentioned in [§ XXXI.] The men wounded in this manner afford me an opportunity of inserting in this place, what I had to say with respect to the necessity of amputation in consequence of an hemorrhage; but I shall be very brief, as in these times, when surgery makes such progress, there is no artist but knows, and is familiarly acquainted with the different methods of stopping a bleeding. Therefore, although the interosseous, the brachial and crural arteries, near the articulations of the elbow or knee, or any other branches of arteries when divided, may give the surgeon a good deal of trouble, he is not obliged on that account to take off the limb; for in whatever situation we suppose the artery to be injured, the surgeon may always, by proper dilations, come at the wound, and stop the bleeding by the application of astringents, among which agaric and spirit of turpentine has, with us, very often succeeded, or by compression or ligatures, or lastly by all these means united; thus amputation ought never to be performed on account of an hemorrhage. It is even astonishing to conceive how surgeons should think of such an expedient, as frequently the difficulty of stopping the bleeding after amputation is greater than on any other occasion, especially if it be performed below the knee[41]. I therefore persist in my opinion, whether the wound of the arteries be only accompanied with one in the soft parts, or whether at the same time the bone be fractured or shattered: In this last case, I should join the treatment mentioned in this section to that of [§ XXIV.]

It will here perhaps be objected, that all these means would be to no purpose, if the brachial or crural arteries are wounded at a certain height, because, in such a case, the limb must waste away for want of nourishment. I shall return an answer in a few words, with respect to the crural artery at the upper part of the thigh, which is, that whether my method can, or cannot be adopted in this case, there is no alternative; no surgeon as far as I know having ventured to perform amputation at this part, because every body would dread the patient's expiring during the operation[42]: Neither would the wounds of the brachial artery induce me to take off the arm at its upper part, although it be practicable, because I think every expedient is to be tried before we have recourse to this; and as from several cases we learn, that after the operation for the aneurism the member has recovered its heat, motion, and strength[43], even when the trunk of the brachial artery has been cut through; I think when it is wounded, we ought to tie it without fear, and afterwards provide for the preservation of the limb, by aperient spirituous fomentations and by gentle frictions, which contribute to open and enlarge the small vessels, and by that means to restore heat and life to the parts[44]. If we observe, the first or second day after the operation, a little swelling or heat below the wound, we may conceive great hopes that the whole limb will revive: If, on the contrary, whatever is below the wound shrivels, grows cold and dry, then we may think of amputation, without, however, being precipitate; as a mortification in this case is always slow, and sometimes the limb recovers heat and motion very late. But I am convinced this case will very rarely require amputation. In conformity to the plan I have proposed, I should now mention the two last circumstances wherein amputation is deemed necessary, a caries of the bone, and a cancerous disposition of the part; but I imagine it will be better first to relate some instances of cures effected without amputation, wherein this operation to many surgeons would have appeared indispensable.