But, then, some of those French surgeons are worse than hangmen.
Dr. Mott, when once in Paris, was invited by M. ---- to witness a private
operation, which was simply the removal of a tumor from the neck of an
elderly gentleman.
"Dr. Mott informed me," says Dr. S. Francis, "that never in his life had
he seen anybody but a _butcher_ cut and slash as did this French surgeon.
He cut the jugular vein. Dr. Mott instantly compressed it. In a moment
more he severed it again. By this time, the patient being feeble, and
having, by these two successive accidents, lost much blood, a portion of
the tumor was cut off, the hole plugged up by lint, and the patient left."
A week after, Dr. M. met the surgeon, and inquired after the patient.
"O, _oui_," said the butcher, shrugging his shoulders. "Poor old fellow!
He grew pious, and suddenly died."
And this was by one of the first surgeons of France, on the authority of
Dr. Valentine Mott.
Cases are cited in Paget's "Surgical Pathology," of tumors being removed
by the knife from four to nine times, and returning, proving fatal, in
every instance.