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PDFLower forms of life have the remarkable quality of restoring a lost organ, and of living as separate individuals if divided. This power gradually diminishes as we ascend the scale of life, and is lost by the higher forms. It is a remarkable fact, however, that the lower human races, the lower classes of society, women and children, show something of the same quality in their superior tolerance of surgical disease. The indifference of savage races to wounds and loss of blood has everywhere been remarked by ethnologists. Dr. Bartels has formulated the law of resistance to surgical and traumatic treatment in the following sentence: “The higher the race, the less the tolerance, and the lower the culture-condition in a given race, the greater the tolerance."[71] The greater disvulnerability of women is generally recognized by surgeons. The following figures from Lawrie, Malgaigne, and Fenwick are representative:[72]
LAWRIE (GLASGOW)
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======= | Men |Deaths|| Women |Deaths ---------------------------+---------+------++---------+----
-- Pathological amputations...|110 cases| 29 || 41 cases| 7 Traumatic amputations......|106 " | 59 || 14 " | 4 |---------+------++---------+------ Total..................|216 cases| 88 || 55 cases| 11 |----------------++---------------- |or, 40.74 deaths|| 20 deaths | per 100 || per 100 ------------------------------------------------------------
-- A difference of 20.74 per cent. in favor of women.
MALGAIGNE (HOSPITALS OF PARIS)
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======= | Men |Deaths|| Women |Deaths ---------------------------+---------+------++---------+----
-- Major pathological amputa- | | || | tions................... |280 cases| 138 || 98 cases| 44 Minor pathological amputa- | | || | tions................... |106 cases| 9 || 40 cases| 2 Major traumatic amputations|165 " | 107 || 17 " | 10 Minor traumatic amputations| 73 " | 13 || 10 " | 0 |---------+------++--------+------ Total..................|624 cases| 267 ||165 cases| 56 |----------------++---------------- |or, 37.98 deaths|| 34.18 deaths | per 100 || per 100 ------------------------------------------------------------
-- A difference of 3.8 per cent. in favor of women.
FENWICK (NEWCASTLE, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH)
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======= | Men |Deaths|| Women |Deaths ---------------------------+---------+------++---------+----
-- Amputations................|304 cases| 86 || 64 cases| 16 |----------------++---------------- |or, 27.86 deaths|| 25 deaths per | per 100 || 100 ------------------------------------------------------------
-- A difference of 2.86 per cent. in favor of women.
TOTAL FOR THE THREE SERIES
