Author of “Diseases of the Ovaries, their Diagnosis and Treatment,” 1865 and 1872; “Ten Series of 100 cases of Ovariotomy;” Med. Chir. Trans. 1859-80, and numerous contributions to Medical Papers.
“If we could hope in diseased women for the same series of changes as have been observed in healthy dogs and rabbits, we might agree more completely with the conclusions of the German experimenters. But it is one thing to remove a piece of a uterine horn, or a healthy ovary, or a bit of omentum or mesentery, from a dog or a rabbit, and a very different thing to remove a large uterine or ovarian tumour from a woman whose general health has been more or less affected by the growth of the tumour.”--_Diseases of the Ovaries_, London, 1872, p. 372.
“I made experiments upon animals for which I have been vilified, but for which I do not reproach myself.… They corroborate what was known before, that abdominal wounds well adjusted unite readily. This was not what I wanted. They proved more, and were the visible standing evidence which I did want--that, though the other tissues might be brought together, if the cut edges of the peritoneum were left free, they retracted, direct union did not take place, and secondary evil consequences resulted.… Without this convincing demonstration in my hands, I might have gone on for years, bowing to precepts and oblivious of principles, sometimes taking up the peritoneum and sometimes leaving it loose, with perplexity to myself and danger to my patients.”--_Ovarian and Uterine Tumours_, London, 1882, pp. 197-98.
“Fifteen years after my first operation (in 1842), T. S. Wells came to Manchester to be present at one of my operations, and made many inquiries, amongst which--‘Did I include the peritoneum in my interrupted sutures?’ I replied, ‘Certainly;’ and gave as my reason, that in two cases where the suture had not included the peritoneum hernial protrusions had followed. I also added, that peritonitis could only be set up _once_, whether the sutures included the peritoneum or not. I was for some time after in correspondence with Mr. Wells, but never heard of vivisection in connection with ovariotomy, nor can I perceive any advantage that ovariotomy has received from such experiments. All my operations from first to last have shown the same average amount of success--about 75 per cent. I have never practised nor yet countenanced vivisection. I have given up operating after 400 cases and about 100 deaths.”--_Letter of Dr. Clay, dated April 6th, 1880._