Part 12

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. 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: 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, 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. 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.

The first case I shall relate is very remarkable, of a soldier in his royal highness prince Henry's regiment, whom my friend M. Kretchmer, an able artist, and principal surgeon of the hospital, and Mr. Sterneman one of the ordinary surgeons, had the care of under my direction, and cured compleatly to the surprize of every body. The left arm was terribly shattered by four different pieces of iron shot, the os humeri was broke through the middle, and the arm pierced with eight holes, and at the joint of the elbow there was a true aneurism, of the bigness of a large fist. Mr. Kretchmer began by applying the tourniquet at the armpit in order to stop the bleeding; then of the eight wounds or apertures, he chose two nearest to the fracture, and dilated them in such a manner as to lay the bone bare; he likewise dilated a little the six others; after these dilatations he extracted several large splinters, he then brought the two ends of the bone together, placed them in their proper position, in which he made them be kept by assistants, while he moistened all the wounds with equal parts of spirit of wine and arquebusade water, and covered them with lint; he wrapped up the whole arm in linnen cloth, and fastened the bandage moderately tight: he next applied gradual compresses to the aneurism, and bound it up with a roller by itself; after which he moistened the whole with the same mixture of spirit of wine and arquebusade water, and as much martial ball as he could dissolve in it, and applied over the bandage for the aneurism the fomentation which I have already mentioned, made with the species for the black decoction. He slackened the tourniquet every two hours, drawing it tight again immediately; he removed it altogether at the end of a few days, contenting himself with compressing the artery under the armpit with bolsters and a bandage which did not hinder the dressing of the wounds. He dressed them every day, but the bandage for the aneurism he renewed only every other day, although two of the openings lay under it. In this manner he persevered with great assiduity for a considerable time. All this while he made the hand and fore arm be secured in a cylinder of strong pasteboard, and suspended in a sling. He bled the patient frequently, gave him vinegar and water for his drink, and made him take from time to time the powders which I mentioned before, consisting of nitre, Epsom salt, cream of tartar, and true Armenian bole. By these means only, he restored this arm, which was so bad that it could not even be taken off, to such a state, that in the course of three months, after having removed some splinters, the aneurism was dispersed, and the fracture and wounds were perfectly cured.

We cured another soldier belonging to the regiment of Brandenburgh Bareith, whose elbow was miserably torn by five pieces of iron shot, some of which stuck fast in the part, and where both bones of the fore arm were shattered.

After having dilated the wounds, we extracted some splinters, sawed off a piece of the cubital bone about four inches long, and in dressing the wounds endeavoured to avoid too large a suppuration.

In the ordinary method amputation would certainly have been performed, as the fore-arm was shattered, and the upper arm which was untouched could admit of the operation, but we saved the arm and made a perfect cure without having recourse to such an expedient, which are so many evidences that give their testimony in favour of our method, which we can produce to the partisans of amputation.

M. de Sass, colonel commandant of a regiment belonging to the garrison of Lattorf, and who is at present commandant at Brieg, received at the battle fought near Czeslau, a musket shot in the leg, which shivered the two bones into several fragments, of which some of four or five inches in length were extracted. The surgeons thought amputation necessary, and pressed him to submit to it; he refused however and recovered; although the limb is bent outwards he can walk and go about his business with ease.

A soldier of the regiment of Cuirassiers of Gessler, called Lukrafka, was wounded in the going through the exercise with the regiment, in such a manner that the two bones were fractured in the middle, with several fissures lengthways. After having laid the fissures of the bone bare, I sawed through a piece of the tibia about five inches in length, which I removed together with the marrow; I separated with a pair of forceps the useless parts of the fibula which jutted out, then I placed the bones in their natural position, and at the expiration of four months the patient was cured. This limb was somewhat shorter than the other, he could nevertheless walk and leap with ease.

M. de Franckenberg, a captain in Hulsen's regiment of foot, was terribly wounded by a musket ball at the battle of Loboschitz; all the bones of the tarsus were broke and shattered in such a manner that it seemed almost necessary to take away the whole number; which being done, and the parts of the foot brought close together, it recovered so far that this gallant officer, with the help of a double heel, can walk conveniently, and is able to do duty along with his regiment in garrison at Alt-Sydow.

M. de Alvensleben, ensign in the guards, received at Torgau a wound above the foot which shattered the tibia and fibula, and the splinters forced by the violence of the shot formed three distinct layers; I was obliged to make a great many deep incisions, and in a little time he was so much better, that I could venture to entrust the remainder of the cure to the surgeon of the regiment. A soldier of Sybourg's regiment of foot, named Mieke, seventy years of age, received near Miessen in 1759, a musket shot which shattered the shoulder bone two fingers breadth below the articulation; a splinter was taken out five inches long; he was nevertheless perfectly cured at the end of nine months, and left Wittemberg to go to the hospital of Invalids at Berlin.

M. de Stabenwol, captain lieutenant of Grabow's regiment of foot, at the battle of Kunnersdorf, received a musket shot which shattered the head of the os humeri close to its articulation with the scapula; he was perfectly cured in the space of eight months, and went from Stettin to Berlin.

M. de Rottkirk, commandant of the margrave Charles's regiment, and M. de Krockow, captain in Schlabrendorf's regiment of Cuirassiers, received each of them a wound through the joint of the shoulder, and were both compleatly cured at the expiration of about ten months.

M. de Britzke, commandant of Knobloch's regiment of foot, was wounded, near Dresden, by a musket ball which pierced the articulation at the elbow, and shattered the three bones which join at that place. Several splinters were extracted; this officer nevertheless in about two years was compleatly cured, and at present does his duty gloriously at the head of his regiment.

I shall finish the account of these cases with that of a prince wounded at the battle of Kunnersdorf. A musket ball wounded him very badly, passing through his foot at the articulation of the tarsus and metatarsus in such a manner, that all the metatarsal bones excepting one were shattered. Proper incisions and the other remedies already mentioned effected his cure, and restored him to the nation and the army to their great joy, although the wound was of that kind, for which surgeons were accustomed to amputate not above fifty years ago.

FOOTNOTES:

Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the year 1732.

I have not yet read the Dissertation on this subject, which obtained the prize from the royal Academy of Surgery; but by persons arrived from Paris, I have been informed, that the author carried a dog with him to the Academy, whose thigh he had cut off at the articulation.

Note by Tissot. There must be a mistake in this place, since the writers of these pieces for the prize never make themselves known. Not that I make any doubt of the possibility of taking off the thigh of a dog, but I don't apprehend that such a fact can be at all conclusive with respect to the same operation on the human species.

See Heister's Surgery, t. i. part i. ch. 13. Edinburgh Medical Essays, vol. ii. art. 15. vol. v. art. 17. The Promptuar. Hamburg. and the Collections of Breslau, in several places.

Anatomy, observations in surgery, and the opening of dead bodies, concur to establish Mr. Bilguer's opinion.

The anatomical proofs are drawn from the inspection of the arteries. I am persuaded, that unless the crural artery is wounded almost at its egress from the arch formed by the tendons of the abdominal muscles, where it loses the name of iliac, its being destroyed will very seldom occasion the loss of the limb; besides three small branches which it sends off almost at its egress, and on which, I own, should have no great reliance, for the nourishment of so large a limb, both on account of their smallness and their distribution, at about two or three inches distance from the artery, it sends off other branches much more considerable, among others, two called the muscular arteries, especially the external one, descends pretty large down the thigh, and very evidently contributes to the nourishment of the muscular parts; although their trunks have not been traced so far as the leg, I make no doubt but it may be discovered that their branches reach that part, and which, though scarcely visible in their natural state, would not fail to become larger, when the blood was thrown into them in greater abundance; besides, the anastomosis of any considerable branch with the trunk of the crural artery, conveys so much blood to it, that it may again become useful: Experience demonstrates that this happens in the arm, and it is highly probable that the same thing may take place in the thigh; the number of branches which spring from the brachial artery, almost from its beginning, and their distribution being very analogous to what we see in the crural artery.

The surgical observations which demonstrate the recovery of heat in the parts after the operation for the aneurism, although the brachial artery has been tied very high, are common, and may be found among other observators besides those quoted by Mr. Bilguer, and there are doubtless few physicians or surgeons who have not had opportunities of seeing such cases themselves.

It is a sight extremely interesting, to observe the gradual return of heat, strength and colour, to an arm on which the operation for the aneurism has been performed. I do not know that this operation was ever performed in the thigh, the artery being so guarded in this part, that an aneurism rarely forms here. I have seen the operation succeed very well in the inferior part of the leg, on the tibialis anterior, and the foot suffered but very little for a few days; it is true it is supplied with several other branches.

Some curious dissections of dead bodies afford a third argument, as the crural artery has been found quite obliterated in the upper part of the thigh, in consequence of a morbid cause, without the leg having been deprived of its nourishment, though supplied perhaps more imperfectly.

Warm water baths, in these cases where the circulation is to be promoted through the smaller vessels, and their diameters enlarged, are among the most efficacious remedies. TISSOT.

See § XIII.