Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/282

 276 Southern Historical Society Papers.

AS SURGEON AND TEACHER.

Dr. McGuire's work as a surgeon can be accurately measured only by one of his profession. He had performed operations which, to almost any other man, would have appeared impossible.

In addition, he had read a large number of papers before the Virginia Medical Society, which have not only proven of value to the profession of this State, but have been widely printed, and are regarded as the final word, in so far as they relate to the subjects of which they treat. He also collaborated upon several standard text- books of surgery.

Dr. McGuire was the first surgeon who ever performed the opera- tion of suprapubic cystotomy. His discovery of this operation gave him an international fame. He performed it in a very great many cases, generally successfully.

Dr. McGuire also had the distinction of being the only surgeon who ever ligated the aorta. This apparently impossible feat was performed under circumstances which seemed to make it absolutely necessary. The patient was bleeding to death from a wound in the aorta, which almost severed it. But Dr. McGuire was undismayed and determined that if the man died it should not be until a last desperate effort had been made to save him ; such an effort as had never been made before, probably, certainly not successfully. He cut into the artery, found it had been nearly severed, and in a few minutes bound the edges of the wound together, and the blood went coursing along the great channel once more.

Dr. McGuire was not fond of writing. He loved to lecture to his classes, but his hand was far fonder of the operating- knife than the pen. Still, he leaves .many valuable papers to attest his learning and skill. He was the author of the chapter on Intestinal Obstruction, in Pepper's System of Medicine, and of the chapter devoted to Gunshot Wounds, in Holmes' System of Surgery. Both works are the recognized authorities.

The following papers read before the Virginia Medical Society have been very widely published: Gunshot Wounds of the Peritoneum, Choice of Anaesthecics, Nervous Disturbances Following Urethral Stricture, Formation of Artificial Urethra in Prostatic Obstruction, Gunshot Wounds of the Belly, Relief of Prostatic Obstruction, Twenty-One Cases of Supra-Pubic Cystotomy and Results, Chronic