- face of the intestine renders improbable, but which nevertheless
may occur if at any point there happen to be a break in the continuity of the tissues. As the next step in the operation the cord should be completely divided high up (the incision being made upon the staff) close to the opening in the peritoneum through which the folds of the intestine forced their way, in the first instance, into the scrotum; but the surgeon must, without fear of doing harm, and remembering that he is dealing with conditions of a desperate nature, see to it that the opening made in the peritoneum is amply large. Finally, with the aid of a soft piece of linen he should return the folds of the intestine to the peritoneal cavity, etc. [The remaining portions of the description are of minor importance and may well be omitted here.]
Franco, speaking of those cases in which a portion of the
omentum is found projecting into the hernial sac, lays great
stress upon the importance of "not doing what many a
surgeon has done in the past and what not a few are still
doing in our time, viz., simply cutting off the imprisoned
distal portion of this membrane and returning the remainder
to the peritoneal cavity without first ligating the
divided blood-vessels and then cauterizing the cut surface;
the danger being that a failure to take these steps frequently
leads to a fatal hemorrhage into the peritoneal cavity—an
occurrence which actually happened to one of our most
experienced surgeons in a case of enterepiplocele."
There were certain operative procedures in which Franco took a greater interest than in others. Thus, for example, he was particularly fond of operating for the relief of cataract, and the results which he obtained were exceptionally favorable (180 cures out of a total of 200 cases subjected to operation). Von Gurlt quotes him as saying:—
If I had to choose between operations for the cure of cataract
and abandoning all the rest of my surgical practice, I should prefer
to adopt the latter course, so highly do I estimate the amount of
good which I can do in this line of work, so very important does it
appear to me, and so small is the amount of labor and worry which
it entails.
Franco was also greatly interested in the cure of stone
in the bladder, and it was while treating cases of this
