Further, if it be considered, that many of those who died, might have recovered, had they been taken care of any where else than in an hospital, where the air is very bad; and if it be called to mind at the same time, what some very eminent surgeons have observed, that two thirds of those die who have their limbs cut off[32], I hope it will be readily acknowledged, that my method of treating wounded limbs, by saving them, is highly preferable to that of amputation. FOOTNOTES: [27] _Halbe Invaliden._ [28] _Ganze Invaliden._ [29] _Schwerfracturirte._ [30] It is obvious that Mr. Bilguer has not made his calculations in so favourable a manner for himself, as he might have done; I am persuaded that in 6618 wounded men, a much greater number than 245 must have died from the consequences of concussion, large flesh wounds, fevers, fluxes, and other diseases, owing to a bad habit, bad air, the season of the year, &c. TISSOT. [31] Such a pretence would in effect be absurd: The reasoning would amount to this; it is demonstrated that the danger arising from amputation, joined to that attending wounds of themselves curable, has killed a great many patients; therefore the danger arising from this operation, joined to that attending wounds which have proved incurable, would have saved a great many patients: Only the most blinded obstinacy could reason in such a manner. TISSOT. [32] See the memoirs of the Academy of Surgery, t. 2. p. 256. where Mr. Boucher, in speaking of gunshot wounds, with the bone shattered near the articulation, shews that amputation commonly proves fatal, and that of three patients on whom it is performed, generally two die; whereas out of an hundred and sixty-five who had had the bones shattered, on whom amputation had not been performed, not one died. A degree of success which he ascribes, it must be owned, to the management of the surgeon; who, instead of spirituous applications, only made use of emollients, light digestives and anodynes. SECT. XXVIII. Finally, I must add, that the greater number of those who died in our hospitals, in consequence of wounded limbs, were of those who had the os femoris shattered near its upper articulation; and as we are not at present acquainted with any means of relieving that accident; and as it has not as yet been attempted to amputate at that part, if we deduct these cases from the number mentioned in the preceding section who died, we shall see that the number of those whose lives were saved without amputation, considerably exceeds that of those who died. Since wounds near the superior part of the thigh bone, or shoulder, where the bones are shattered, ought always to be looked on as desperate. SECT. XXIX.