The Glass and the Stone
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Debates · VI. The Stone-Cutters

When did Cheselden start the lateral operation? disputed

Watch 30:14

Positions

  1. 1727

    The BAUS museum and Wikipedia say he first performed the lateral operation in 1727.

    Sources
    1. BAUS Virtual Museum: William Cheselden Museum or society
    2. Wikipedia, William Cheselden Secondary

  2. Gradually, from August 1725

    Tröhler, for the James Lind Library, dates the start of a gradual development to August 1725. The 1732 edition of his Anatomy reports that the first 27 patients cut this way recovered.

    Sources
    1. James Lind Library: Cheselden's 1740 presentation of age-specific mortality after lithotomy (Tröhler) Museum or society

Evidence

The two dates may describe different things: the first trials of a new approach and its settled form. Cheselden's own 1741 account credits Rau's success with persuading him to try it.

Current standing

1727 is the conventional date for the mature operation; the start is disputed. The film's scene is set at St Thomas's in 1727 and gives no start date in the narration.

All sources

Sources
  1. BAUS Virtual Museum: William Cheselden Museum or society
  2. James Lind Library: Cheselden's 1740 presentation of age-specific mortality after lithotomy (Tröhler) Museum or society
  3. Cheselden, The Anatomy of the Human Body, 1741 (archive.org full text) Primary