lister’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
73
But that which I (hall here mod infift upon is the new way, pra&ifed by Pere Jaques,a monk. About the 20th of April he cut in the Hotel-Dieu ten in lefs than an hour’stime: the third day after, all were hearty and without pain but one.
He cuts both by the grand and little appareil; in both he boldly thrufts in a broadlancet or diletto into the middle of the mulcle of the thigh near the anus, till he joins thecatheter or llaff, or the done betwixt his fingers ; then he widens the incifion of thebladder in pioportion to the done with afilver oval hoop; if that will not do, he thrudsin his four fingers and tears it wider; then with the duck’s bill he draws it out.
I faw him cut a fecond time in the I lodel-Dieu ; and he performed it upon nine per-fons in three quarters of an hour, very dexteroufly. He feemed to venture at all; andput me into fome diforder with the cruelty of the operation ; and a douter Englilhmanthan myfelf. However I vifited them all in their beds, and found them more amazedthan in pain.
Pere Jaques cut alfo his way in the other hofpital La Charite, much about the fametime, eleven at twice. Here Monfieur Marlhal, the bed of the furgeons for this opera-tion now in Paris , harangued againd him before the governors, who coldly anfwered,they would be determined by the event, which way was bed.
Atque hac ratione Ftzminis Calculi omnium facillime exciduntur ; ncmpe fcalpello mtravaginam uteri in veficam adadlo.
Of thofe cut in La Charite one died ; and being differed, it was found he had hisbladder pierced in four or five places ; alfo the mufculus pfous fadly mangled ; alfothe left veficuke feminales cut.
Notwithdanding this, if this method was well executed by a Ikilful hand, it might be'of good ufe to mankind.
This way of cutting for the done, puts me in mind of what I formerly wrote andpublilhed in the Phil. Tranfadtions, about cutting above the os pubis, in the fund of thebladder.
Alfo of that experiment of cutting for the done of an alderman of Doncader in thegluteus major, he was twice cut in the fame place, and out-lived both. I faw the firft done,which was very large, and in fome meafure tranfparent, crydal like. This experimentis printed in Dr. Willies’s Scarborough Spaw, fourteen years ago at lead, and is a fairhint for this new method.
Since my return I had a letter from Mr. Probie, a very learned and indudriousyoung gentleman, who was with me to fee the operation, that part relating to thismatter I diall here tranferibe. Indeed, I mightily longed for an account of this mat-ter, the fuccefs of which I came away too foon to learn any thing for certain.
cc PERE JAQtJE’s reputation mightily darkens, out of forty-five that he cut at thehodel-dieu, but fixteen of them furvive; and of nineteen in the Charite, but eleven.He has pradtifed at the hofpital at Lyons, but, it is faid, with worfe fuccefs than atParis . I am fenfible he has got abundance of enemies, which makes me very oftenquedion, what I may hear faid of him. Dr. Fagon, the king’s phyfician, told Dr.Turnfort, when he went to prefent his book to him, that he had cut feven at Ver-failles, and that fix of them are alive, and as well as if never cut. The perfon thatdied was fo didempered, that he was not expedted to live, and it was thought, if hehad not been cut, he had not lived fo long : the furgeons have a great mind to crydown the man, though they pradtife his method. For Marlhal has fince cut afterPere jaque’s manner, only with this difference, that Marlhal’s catheter w^as cannulated.Le Rue, the fecond furgeon of the Charity hofpital cut after the old manner, at the
vol. iv. l fame