Page 35 - My FlipBook

you have a considerable operation to do, you may do some
of the work with the face of the patient directed upward,
but the most of it must be done with the face thrown over
from you, while standing on the right side ; then you will
reach it easily; except, perhaps, for the third molar, you will
need to turn the face a little more. In operating upon the
molars and bicuspids of the left side of the upper jaw you
should stand in the same position, on the right side, and
turn the face of the patient toward you.
Be careful, always, that the chest of your patient is out
of the way for operations upon the upper jaw. Now, I com-
mend you particularly to a study of these positions with
your patients in the operating room. When you have seated
your patient in the chair and have determined upon your
operation, study the position with reference to that particu-
lar operation and make it your object to assume correct
positions from the start and become accustomed to obtain-
ing correct positions for these operations, and you will do
them much more easily to yourself, much more easily to
your patient, and your operations will be better when per-
formed, because of having obtained positions in which you
will not become overfatigued and in this way become in-
duced to slide over the difficulties of the operation and do
them imperfectly. The matter of keeping oneself in condi-
tion to operate well is of the utmost importance. No one
can do an operation well when he is fagged out ; it is sim-
ply impossible that one can do the best thing when very
tired. You must arrange your patients and arrange your
manner of operating so as to preserve your freshness and

preserve your vigor for the day's work, or else you will fail.
I don't think a man has any right to perform a tedious, diffi-
cult operation that requires minuteness of care when he i"^
tired out, and he should not allow himself to become tired
out over the chair. I have operated fourteen hours manv
days without overfatigue, when I was younger, and a man
who trains himself closely to the positions required and as-
sumes the best positions will be able to do this for a time.
He shouldn't do it long; he shouldn't do it for many days;
it is too much entirely; six or eight hours is all that a man
should spend over the operating chair in one day, as a rule,
and that he ought to be able to do easily and without
fatigue.
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