Page:Memoir of Dr James Alexander (1795-1863), Wooler by his son-in-law, Sir John Struthers, 1863.pdf/5

3 which the country practitioner might take in hand, but operations which he might have sent to the metropolitan surgeons, such as  lithotomy, tying the arteries for aneurism, and the excision of  tumours. Besides reading the journals and the new books, he was himself an occasional contributor of reviews and papers, chiefly in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, the  Edinburgh Medical Journal, and in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review. It is to be regretted indeed that what he wrote was mainly in the form of reviewing, and not  more in the form of communications bearing his name. Of these, however, there are several in the Edinburgh journals. In the Edinburgh Monthly Journal he published a "Case of Popliteal Aneurism, with Remarks", and his "Case of Excision of the Sub-maxillary Gland". This case furnishes at least one example in which the tumour excised really was the sub-maxillary salivary gland.

In the Edinburgh Medical Journal he published in 1857 a "Case of Suppurating Tumour in the Groin, resembling Hernia", and a "Case of Dislocation of the Humerus Backwards;" in 1858 a "Case of Cancerous Tumour treated by Chloride of Zinc"; in 1859 "Cases of Suppression of Urine," and on "Surgical Statistics"; and in 1862, "Case of Strangulated Hernia, accompanied with Chronic Abscess in the neighbourhood of Poupart's Ligament," in which he takes occasion to inculcate early recourse  to the operation in strangulated hernia. These communications contain useful practical remarks besides the record of interesting cases. The most remarkable of them is the one entitled "Surgical Statistics," in which he gives a tabular view of 126 operations which he had performed, although the district, being purely agricultural, is one in which accidents comparatively seldom occur. There are 12 larger amputations, 2 of ligature of the femoral artery for popliteal aneurism, 2 of lithotomy, 11 cases of  operation for strangulated hernia, a case of excision of the eye- ball; of excision of the mamma for cancer, 8 cases; of excision  of the lip for cancer, 34 cases; of other tumours, 6; and 42 of minor operations. Of the cases of excision of the mamma for cancer, the operation appeared to have afforded permanent relief in only 2, while in the cases of cancer of the lip the disease  returned in only 7 of the 34. His object in giving these statistics and remarks was to make his small contribution illustrate the  effect of country air and home influences on recovery after