As the science of abdominal surgery advances, we feel it is not a report of successful operations alone that establishes a reputation, but the number of absolute cures makes the successful surgeon.
Since the days of Listerism, when Lister first laid down the rules for antisepsis, which in turn gave birth to the crowning aid to surgery, thorough asepsis, the rate of mortality has diminished in a remarkable manner.
The number of abdominal sections for various lesions increased, and with the number of recoveries the dread for such surgery was diminished. Those earnestly engaged in effecting lasting cures, soon began to see that it was not always recovery from an operation which meant a cure. The patient was not safely landed; fistulæ, secondary adhesions, painful stumps, or unfinished operations, marked the shoals upon which the hopes for an entire recovery might be wrecked; like the successful navigator, it becomes