Articles: wounds-history.
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Over many centuries, from the early writings of Galen, 'the father of Medicine', wounds of the heart were considered fatal and outside the remit of surgery. With the advent of anaesthesia, (ether was introduced by William Morton in 1846) and of antiseptic surgery, (Joseph Lister's first publication was in 1867), there was an explosion in the surgery of the abdominal cavity, the chest, the skull and the limbs, yet the heart was considered by the surgical fraternity to be the 'no-go' area of the body. ⋯ In London, Stephen Paget, in 1896, wrote: "No new method and no new discovery can overcome the natural difficulties that attend a wound of the heart. It is true that suture has been vaguely proposed as a possible procedure and has been done in animals but I cannot find that it has ever been attempted in practice". (In fact, the heart is an amazingly tough and efficient pump that goes on working, year after year, without ever stopping for a service!).
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Biography Historical Article
This dust was once the man: commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's last hours.
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Biography Historical Article
[Medical opinion about the death of Miklós Zrínyi, the "Hungarian God of War"].
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Biography Historical Article
The chest wound of General Shields in the Battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, 1847.