Remarks on the repair of wounds and fractures in aged persons / by G.M. Humphry.

  • Humphry, George Murray, Sir, 1820-1896.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the repair of wounds and fractures in aged persons / by G.M. Humphry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    4 assistance has now been sufTiciontly answered. We have thus estab- lished the fact tliat tlie repair of wounds and of fractures takes place in the ohl persons as quickly as in the middle-aged ; and we ought to hear no more of the disqualification for reunion which has been attri- buted to old age. That tliis is no unimportant matter from a prac- tical point of view, is sufficiently shown by the case mentioned to us by Mr. Hodson, of Bishop Stortford, in which a fracture of the thi^h-bone in an old woman was allowed to go untreated, because the medical men thought that at that time of life union of a broken bone was not to be expected. In conclusion, I have to thank the members who have been good enough to forward the cases from which the following notes have been taken ; and I may remark that it is only by the collection of cases in this way these and many other questions can be answered. The in- vestigation by this method, for which our Association affords such un- precedented opportunities, has the double advantage of bringing a heavy battery of information to bear upon any one point where in- formation is required, and further of greatly benefiting those who communicate the information. There is no reading at all to compare with that of reading ourselves, our own experiences and our own thoughts upon them. These were the feelings which influenced me, when I ventured at the Cambridge meeting four years ago to suggest that some measure of the energies of the Association should be turned in this direction. I have never taken any part in the political movements which occupy the attention of some of the more active members being of opinion that more service might be rendered to the Association, to its individual members, and to the science and prac- tice of medicine, by organising a plan for the collection and utilisation of the vast streams of experience which are daily allowed to flow away into the great abyss of waste. The following are notes of cases of wounds in elderly persons. 1. Woman, aged 85, strangulated hernia; wound healed in four days ; torn open again by old lady's fingers, healed again soundly in three weeks ; bed-sore on sacrum six days after operation (Mr. May, in British Medical Journal, May 31st). 2. Woman, aged 75, hernia ; healed in four days (Mr. Makch, British Medical Journal, May 31st). 3. Man, aged 91, large wound of scalp; periosteum stripped from bone; much bleeding; on eighth day himself again and going out (Mr. Moloney, British Medical Jounuil, May 24th). 4. Woman, aged 86, hernia healed in ten days (Dr. Cousins, British Medical Journal, June 7th); never saw more satisfactory result. 5. Woman, aged 85, hernia ; healed by first intention (Mr. Thom- son, British Medical Journal, June 7th). 6. Woman, aged 79, hernia; healed by first intention (Mr. Thomson, British Medical Journal, June 7th). 7. Woman, aged 76, femoral hernia ; bowel gangrenous ; artificial anus ; quite healed up in three weeks (Dr. Smith, of Newport, Essex). 8. Woman, aged 75, very feeble; femoral hernia; healed in three days(G. M. H.). 9. Woman, aged 80, femoral hernia; healed in a week (a Member of the Association). 10. Woman, aged 78, mamma removed for soft cancer; severe hicmorrhage same night; immediate union (Mr. Hulke). 11. Male, aged 88, warty growth of lip, removed; healed as quiiddy and firmly as in young person (G. M. H.)