Chapters (90)
- PROLOGUE
- 1849
- ONE
- TWO
- EDINBURGH
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EPILOGUE
- HISTORICAL NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Extract from A Corruption of Blood
- 1850
- ONE
‘Attempts have been made,’ Simpson replied. Raven was grateful he made no mention of what had just occurred. ‘A small number have even been successful. However, it is a procedure much frowned upon by our surgical colleagues. Any trespass into the abdominal cavity is deemed by them to be a death sentence, the risks too great to countenance. Here in Edinburgh some years ago, John Lizars attempted four ovariotomies; he was unanimously denounced by his colleagues for his endeavours. Liston called him a “belly ripper”. Surgical opinion has changed little in the intervening time.’
‘Anaesthesia has not quite been the boon that I thought it would be,’ Raven confessed. ‘I had expected great strides in surgery as a result.’
‘I think you will find a vast number of grateful patients who would disagree with you most vigorously on that point,’ Simpson replied. ‘But with or without anaesthesia, few survive the opening of the abdomen. Hence Caesarean section being an obstetricians’ operation of last resort. It is done only that we might save the infant when we know the mother is about to die.’
Raven sighed as he thought about the tumour in Mrs Glassford’s belly, a malignant lump that was most likely already in the process of replacing the fluid they had just removed. Their therapeutic efforts would only produce a temporary relief. Suddenly everything felt hopeless. Perhaps, he thought, he should not have come back at all. Nothing was as he had imagined it would be and he now knew there was a wide world out there beyond Edinburgh.
Dr Simpson placed a hand upon his shoulder. ‘All may yet be well, Dr Raven. We must not lose hope; without it how could we continue?’
How indeed.
FOURTEEN
llow me to open the curtains upon another play, not quite a year after the last. Three figures stand outside the Belmont Institute, a charitable establishment dedicated, according to its articles, to ‘laying hold of and educating neglected and destitute children who, having no parents, or worse, whose parents are themselves living in vice and profligacy, leave their offspring to grow up in ignorance to become vagrants or criminals’.
Murdo MacDonald had nominated himself as a parent qualifying in the latter category. He stood upon feet rendered unsteady by beer and whisky, a sorry sight with matted hair, ragged clothes and his arm in a sling. He told his daughters it was broken in an accident involving one of the looms. He railed against the carelessness of his colleagues and the negligence of their employer, but his broken nose, swollen purple eye and a dozen older scars bore testament to a more likely explanation for his injuries.
One thing he said was undoubtedly true: with his arm broken, he could not work, and consequently he had declared that he could no longer afford to feed his family. He wished to entrust his daughters to the care of the Belmont Institute instead.