A System of Surgery (Volume 5) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1787. Excerpt: ... SECTION II. Of the Cure of Simple Incised Wounds. TN the management of wounds of every kind, the first object requiring our attention is the hemorrhagy; more especially when it is profuse. The safety of the patient requires it: The alarm which it gives, not only to bystanders, but to the practitioner himself, renders it necessary. Nor can the real state of a wound be discovered with accuracy till the discharge of blood be checked. Hemorrhagies are most immediately stopped by pressure applied to that part of the divided artery which is next to the heart: This pressure is made by the tourniquet, when the wound is in any of the extremities; and by the hands of assistants, in wounds of the trunk of the body or of the head. Vide Vol. I. Chap. II. In this manner, if the preslure be properly applied, almost any hemorrhagy may be stopped till the wounded vessels can be secured with ligatures; which we have elsewhere mown to be the safest as it is the easiest method of preventing patients with such injuries from suffering. Much indeed has been said, even of late years, of the inconveniences which ligatures are supposed to induce: but this has proceeded either from the interested views of some individuals who may have wished to establish the reputation of different styptic applications; or from the groundless fears of young practitioners. Where the contiguous nerves, or even where much of the surrounding muscular parts, are included in ligatures, severe pain, and other troublesome symptoms, -will no doubt be induced; but this is not the fault of the remedy, but of the method of using it. Indeed this is so obviously the case, that reasoning in the farther support of it does not seem to be necessary; for every practitioner of experience f Vide Vol. I. Chap. H. experi...