[27] _Halbe Invaliden._
[28] _Ganze Invaliden._
[29] _Schwerfracturirte._
[30] It is obvious that Mr. Bilguer has not made his calculations in so
favourable a manner for himself, as he might have done; I am persuaded
that in 6618 wounded men, a much greater number than 245 must have
died from the consequences of concussion, large flesh wounds, fevers,
fluxes, and other diseases, owing to a bad habit, bad air, the season
of the year, &c. TISSOT.
[31] Such a pretence would in effect be absurd: The reasoning would
amount to this; it is demonstrated that the danger arising from
amputation, joined to that attending wounds of themselves curable, has
killed a great many patients; therefore the danger arising from this
operation, joined to that attending wounds which have proved incurable,
would have saved a great many patients: Only the most blinded obstinacy
could reason in such a manner. TISSOT.
[32] See the memoirs of the Academy of Surgery, t. 2. p. 256. where Mr.
Boucher, in speaking of gunshot wounds, with the bone shattered near
the articulation, shews that amputation commonly proves fatal, and that
of three patients on whom it is performed, generally two die; whereas
out of an hundred and sixty-five who had had the bones shattered, on
whom amputation had not been performed, not one died. A degree of
success which he ascribes, it must be owned, to the management of the
surgeon; who, instead of spirituous applications, only made use of
emollients, light digestives and anodynes.