[56] When the cancer is evidently the consequence of an external accident, neglected or injudiciously treated, amputation performed in time, may effect a cure; but when the disease has come on gradually, without being able to assign any external cause for it, I have almost constantly observed, although it be performed in time, it accelerates the patient's death; and sometimes after having been made undergo a degree of torture more painful than that of the cancer itself. It is hoped, that the virtues of hemlock will make the frequency of amputation in these cases be discontinued: It appears, however, by the conclusion of the section, that Mr. Bilguer had not seen Dr. Stork's pamphlet. SECT. XLI. I have now finished what I had most material to say, against the practice which still prevails, of too precipitately taking off the limbs when they are contused or shattered. Are my reasons well-founded, or does the method I propose deserve to be adopted? This I leave to be determined by the judicious reader; for my own part, I shall never experience any sensation more agreeable, than the recollection of having saved the lives and preserved the limbs of so many unfortunate men in our hospitals, whose wounds were of the kind for which practitioners hitherto have had recourse to amputation; and it were to be wished, that so many cures happily effected, might repress that kind of folly, by which, in some countries, surgeons are excited, and even encouraged by public rewards, to perform frequent amputations. Another advantage will accrue from this publication, which is, that all those who judged unfavourably of the surgeons of our hospitals, on hearing they never employed amputation, will, I hope, lay aside their prejudices on this score, and may even derive benefit from our example. FINIS. Transcriber's Note Original spellings, punctuation, inconsistencies and all apparent printers' errors are retained, with two exceptions: In section 6, “hat” has been changed to “that” (“...that there is room to dread...”). In section 24, “endeavovour” has been changed to “endeavour” (“If there be any pointed splinters, I endeavour to...”). The heading for Section 36 is missing from this translation. In Tissot's translation the missing Section 36 heading is at the top of page 83, before the sentence: “In conformity to the plan I have proposed...”. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A dissertation on the inutility of the amputation of limbs, by Johann Ulrich Bilguer