3. On Acupressure, a New Method of Arresting Hæmorrhage

Extract

Professor Simpson made a communication on acupressure, as a new mode of arresting surgical hæmorrhage. After describing the various methods of stanching hæmorrhage in surgical wounds and operations which the Greek, Roman, Arabic, and Mediæval surgeons employed, he gave a short history of the introduction of the ligature of arteries, and spoke of it as—with the occasional exception of torsion for the smallest arteries—the hæmostatic means almost universally employed in chirurgical practice at the present day. But he thought that surgery must advance forward a step farther than the ligature of arteries, particularly if surgeons expected—as seemed to be their unanimous desire—to close their operative wounds by the immediate union or primary adhesion of their sides or walls.