Note 58 — PART SECOND. OF PARTICULAR SURGICAL SUBJECTS. (continued 9)

[The least objectionable operation, in my opinion, is that of tying the affected veins, after having carefully separated them from the spermatic artery, vas deferens, and nerves of the testicle. The vessels may be ligatured at one or more points, according to the extent of the enlargement; and, by carefully excluding the structures just mentioned, there will be no danger of cutting off the nervous and vascular supply, as must necessarily happen, in some degree, in the proceeding recommended by Mr. Liston, and which must therefore lead to further wasting of the testicle; a circumstance which should be most sedulously avoided. The external incision need not exceed an inch and a half in length.

I am induced to subjoin the following account of a novel but harsh operation for the cure of cirsocele, lately devised by Mons. Breschet of Paris, not from any belief or hope that it will be generally adopted, but because it has made some noise in the surgical world. It is founded upon the anatomical arrangement of the part, or the facility with which the varicose vessels can be isolated from the spermatic artery and vas deferens, and afterwards compressed so as to obliterate their calibre. This is effected by means of a forceps with flattened plates, which are worked by a screw. The pressure is applied in a gradual manner, but with sufficient force to destroy the vitality of the scrotum and of the affected vessels. The instrument is usually removed in from six to eight days, during which the patient is left on his back, cold lotions are applied to the scrotum, and the case treated on general principles. When the sloughs are detached, the edges of the sore are approximated by adhesive strips, and the person is permitted to walk about. In this way Mons. Breschet is said to have operated successfully in more than a hundred cases; the average period required for a complete cure being twenty-three days. I have never performed this operation, the severity of which is such as to induce the belief that very few persons in this republican country would submit to it. An American surgeon, Dr. F. Hamilton, of New-York, has recently recommended castration for the relief of this affection, and has published several cases in which he performed the operation in illustration of its efficacy. This is certainly a radical mode of doing business, but in my opinion a very objectionable one.—ED.]