Fantasy surgery, 1880-1930 : with special reference to Sir William Arbuthnot Lane / Ann Dally.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dally, Ann, author.

Series:

Wellcome Institute series in the history of medicine.

Wellcome Institute series in the history of medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Surgery--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Surgery.

Surgery--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Lane, William Arbuthnot, 1856-1943.

Lane, William Arbuthnot.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Atlanta GA : Rodopi, 1996.

Summary:

In the late nineteenth century, for the first time in history, major surgery became reasonably safe. A mortality of up to 30% was considered reasonable. The living abdomen, hitherto a region as unexplored as darkest Africa, was opened up to light and to the knife in explorations not unlike those of Africa — bold, dramatic, often not too well thought out, and dangerous. Surgeons became enthusiastic — some of them wildly so. The subsequent period has been called 'the adolescence of surgery'. It included major surgery, often on the abdomen, done for psychiatric symptoms. Ovaries and wombs were removed and other organs hitched up higher inside the abdomen in an attempt to cure hysteria, neurasthenia or depression. This book is about the development and effect of some of these operations and about one of the period's most distinguished surgeons, Sir William Arbuthnot Lane. He was internationally famous in three fields of surgery (facial, mastoid and abdominal), then became deeply involved in removing colons — thought to be the 'sink' of the body and the source of dangerous infection.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Doubtful Diseases and Fantasy Surgery

Surgery and the Nineteenth Century

Dropped Organs

Autointoxication

Young Arbuthnot Lane

Chronic Intestinal Stasis: Surgery for Constipation

Metchnikoff

Success and Opposition: 1903–13

Alimentary Toxaemia: The Great Debate

Aftermath

Follow-up

Lane in Old Age

Conclusions

Selected Bibliography

Index

Appendix.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-04-41847-4

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004418479 DOI