An Epitome of the History of MedicinePark, Roswell
History
An Epitome of the History of Medicine
Park, Roswell
Medicine -- History
in book catalogues, and come from various and wide sources are the
legitimate outcome of Avenbrugger's and of Laënncc's pioneer treatises.
A versatile French writer who devoted especial attention to medical
nomenclature was Piorry (1794-1879), to whom we are{263} indebted
for the pleximeter. The double stethoscope, a legitimate extension of
Laënnec's simple instrument, was invented by Cammann, of New York, and
can justly be claimed for American medicine. Other methods of physical
examination--like spirometry, chest measurement, and study of expired
air--have been introduced since 1846. The ophthalmoscope, which has been
of such sterling service, and is based upon the simplest of principles,
was the invention of the famous Helmholtz, but just deceased. The
principle of endoscopy,--the illumination and visual examination of
the various cavities of the human body,--the various specula, the
spectroscope, the sphygmograph, the more accurate record of physical
sounds, the application of electricity, and the employment of
thermometry represent a few of the strides in the medical science of
the present century, thereby aiding and perfecting the art of diagnosis,
which, in turn, must ever necessarily form the basis for all rational
treatment. Let no one complain that we are still so far from certainty
in every case; the wonder is that so much has been discovered in so
short a space of time.
Wonderful as have been these advances, the greatest achievements have
accrued to the department of surgery, which Chamisso terms "the _seeing_
portion of the healing art." The sixteenth century opened the way
for checking of haemorrhages; the seventeenth accomplished great
simplifications and improvement in the way of dressing wounds; the
eighteenth gave a refining and elevating tendency to the study of
applied practice, and raised surgery to a level with other branches
of science; and now the nineteenth century has, toward its close, made
surgery as nearly, perhaps, as it ever can be, an exact science, to
which every other branch of science has been made contributory. The
chain-saw, invented in 1806 by Jeffery, alone gave an impetus to
resection, which was cultivated especially in Germany; to resection was
added osteotomy by Heine{264} and Maver; this, in turn, was succeeded
by the so-called subcutaneous osteotomy of Langenbeck in 1854; Stromeyer
introduced subcutaneous tenotomy in 1831, which was a very pronounced
advance on all that had gone before; then came the introduction of
anæsthesia, by which were made possible operations that had been beyond
human endurance; by the introduction of the rubber bandage by Esmarch in
1873 bloodless methods were made possible. Pain and haemorrhage, the
two greatest enemies of the conscientious surgeon, being thus almost
annihilated, there was left but an apparently theoretical limit to
what the surgeon might accomplish. Orthopaedic surgery, introduced
by Delpech, was unknown prior to 1816; it was first practiced
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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