Food was
frequently found on the dressings, but with the careful use of
tampons a cure was effected.
In the olden times wounds of the stomach were not always fatal.
The celebrated anatomist, Fallopius, successfully treated two
cases in which the stomach was penetrated so that food passed
through the wound. Jacobus Orthaeus tells us that in the city of
Fuldana there was a soldier who received a wound of the stomach,
through which food passed immediately after being swallowed; he
adds that two judicious surgeons stitched the edges of the wound
to the integuments, thereby effecting a cure. There is another
old record of a gastric fistula through which some aliment passed
during the period of eleven years.
Archer tells of a man who was stabbed by a negro, the knife
entering the cartilages of the 4th rib on the right side, and
penetrating the stomach to the extent of two inches at a point
about two inches below the xiphoid cartilage. The stomachal
contents, consisting of bacon, cabbage, and cider, were
evacuated. Shortly after the reception of the injury, an old
soldier sewed up the wound with an awl, needle, and wax-thread;
Archer did not see the patient until forty-eight hours afterward,
at which time he cleansed and dressed the wound.
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