On the day of the operation, Penman was seated upright in a chair, with his arms and legs restrained. Because neither ether nor chloroform had yet been discovered, Penman was administered no anesthetic. The patient steadied himself as Syme stepped forward, knife in hand. Most jaw tumors were gouged out during this time, beginning at the center of the growth and extending to the periphery. Syme had a different approach in mind. He proceeded to cut into the unaffected part of the man’s lower jawbone, in order to remove the tumor and some of the healthy tissue around it, and ensure that it was
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