To prove what I have advanced, I shall begin with enumerating those
accidents for which amputation has been hitherto deemed necessary. I
shall reduce them to six.
First, A mortification, which spreads till it reaches the bone.
Secondly, Any limb so greatly hurt, whether by fracture or
dilaceration, that there is room to dread the most fatal consequences,
a mortification and death.
Thirdly, A violent contusion of the soft parts, which has at the same
time shattered the bones.
Fourthly, Wounds of the larger vessels, which convey the blood into the
limb, either, as the only means of stopping the hemorrhage, or through
the apprehension the limb should perish for want of nourishment.
Fifthly, An incurable caries of the bone.
Sixthly, If any part is either attacked with a cancer, or is in danger
of being so, it is customary to take it off.
I shall treat of these different accidents more or less particularly,
in proportion to the number of observations I have made on each of
them, as no method of cure, however doubtful and alarming, should
be rejected, till a better can be pointed out. Thus, this treatise
contains only, in effect, an account of the methods I successfully
employed in the military hospitals, for the relief of the above
disorders; together with a few observations, and still fewer
hypothetical reasonings, which induced me to condemn the use of
amputation.