Читать книгу On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females онлайн

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Having ascertained the cause and nature of the disease, there are one or two points to be considered before operative measures are decided on.

First, as to age. Although there is no doubt that patients may suffer from peripheral irritation of the pudic nerve from the earliest childhood, I never operate or sanction an operation on any patient under ten years of age, which is the earliest date of puberty. In children younger than this, milder treatment with careful watching, will be found sufficient if it be thoroughly persevered in.

There are again, after puberty, cases which give rise to but slight disturbance, but in which the sufferers are they who love to enlist sympathy from the charitable, and will be ill, or affect to be ill, in spite of any and every treatment.

When I have decided that my patient is a fit subject for surgical treatment, I at once proceed to operate, after the ordinary preliminary measures of a warm bath and clearance of the portal circulation.

The patient having been placed completely under the influence of chloroform, the clitoris is freely excised either by scissors or knife—I always prefer the scissors. The wound is then firmly plugged with graduated compresses of lint, and a pad, well secured by a T bandage.