ABSTRACT
John Parry himself went on to suggest that the only remedy would be to open the abdomen and either to tie the bleeding vessels or to remove the sac entirely. The first surgeon to perform a successful operation of the kind recommended by Parry was Robert Lawson Tait of Birmingham, England, and it is interesting that the suggestion that he should operate came from a general practitioner. The patient was blanched and collapsed, the uterus was fixed by a doughy mass in the pelvis and there was clearly a considerable amount of effusion in the peritoneum. Tait, a remarkable man, was one of the fathers of abdominal surgery. Indeed, one medical historian went so far as to say that the three dominating figures of nineteenth century surgery were Joseph Lister, James Simpson and Robert Lawson Tait. Tait bore a striking resemblance to his professor, and indeed there were rumours that he was Simpson's natural son.
