Dr. Mütter's Marvels Quotes

“There is scarcely a quality which so much dignifies human nature as consistency of conduct -- and no weakness more deplorable than that of instability.
Examine, choose, compare, reject, but having once made your selection of profession, stand by your decision.
Difficulties, and privations, and hardships, must be encountered; but determination will overcome them all.
And not only sloth and folly, but even genius will be outdone by perseverance.
It often is the case that he who can endure the most is in the end the most successful.”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

“Although Liston was renowned for his success stories—such as the removal of a forty-five-pound scrotal tumor in four minutes; prior to the operation, the poor patient had been forced to carry his scrotum around in a wheelbarrow—he also developed a reputation for the flamboyancy of his surgical failures. For instance, his joy at amputating a patient’s leg at the thigh in less than three minutes was hindered greatly when he realized he had also inadvertently sawed off the patient’s testicles. And perhaps, most famously, another leg amputation performed in less than three minutes had the unfortunate result of killing three people: the patient (who survived the surgery but died of gangrene several days later); his young assistant (whose fingers he accidentally sawed off during surgery and who would also later succumb to gangrene); and “a distinguished surgical spectator” whose coattails Liston also slashed. The man, who found himself surrounded by geysers of blood, was so convinced that the knife had pierced his vitals that he immediately “dropped dead from fright.” It was later described as “the only operation in history with a 300 percent mortality [rate].”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

“Not everything which comes from the birth parts of a woman is a human being.”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

“Place no dependence on your own genius, even if you possess it. If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate talents, industry will supply their deficiency--nothing is denied to well directed labor; nothing is obtained without it.”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

“Let me advise you to commence at once observing for yourself.
Don't trust what you are told in lectures, or read in books, but make the knowledge your own, by your own labors.
Lectures and books will serve as guides and beacons, but the goals can only be reached by travelling the road yourself.”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

“that, for once, its government used sanitary measures—instead of prayer—to fight the constant epidemics.”
― Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine