Bibliograph

Belly-Rippers, Surgical Innovation and the Ovariotomy Controversy, by Sally Frampton

Type

Label

Belly-Rippers, Surgical Innovation and the Ovariotomy Controversy, by Sally Frampton

Language

eng

resource.imageBitDepth

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Belly-Rippers, Surgical Innovation and the Ovariotomy Controversy

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

1229177407

Responsibility statement

by Sally Frampton

Series statement

Open Access e-Books

Summary

This open access book looks at the dramatic history of ovariotomy, an operation to remove ovarian tumours first practiced in the early nineteenth century. Bold and daring, surgeons who performed it claimed to be initiating a new era of surgery by opening the abdomen. Ovariotomy soon occupied a complex position within medicine and society, as an operation which symbolised surgical progress, while also remaining at the boundaries of ethical acceptability. This book traces the operation's innovation, from its roots in eighteenth-century pathology, through the denouncement of those who performed it as 'belly-rippers', to its rapid uptake in the 1880s, when ovariotomists were accused of over-operating. Throughout the century, the operation was never a hair's breadth from controversy.--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction -- Chapter Two: Pathologies, Actions, Ideas -- Chapter Three: Representations of Practice -- Chapter Four: Patent Concerns, Unpatentable Procedures -- Chapter Five: The Business of Surgery -- Chapter Six: The Afterlife of an Operation -- Chapter Seven: Conclusion

Creator