Not for the faint of heart
There probably wasn’t much demand for cosmetic surgery in the Bay of Islands in the 1830s, but missionary James Hamlin, whose second son George was born with a cleft lip, was a notable exception.
James was keen to get his son under the surgeon’s knife, but, as he recorded in his diary, the operation, and his son’s recovery, were not without challenges.
James, one of the pioneer missionaries who helped establish the Church Missionary Society’s Te Waimate Waimate Mission (at Waimate North), was living there with his family when a naval ship, name unknown, dropped anchor off Paihia in January 1831, offering the possibility that the ship’s surgeon could do something about George’s lip.
“I and the child arrived there,” he wrote in his diary. “Mr Williams (missionary Henry Williams) wrote a note on board to acquaint the Doctor with it and he sent back word that as his assistant was out on a pleasure visit, and the Captain being very ill, he could not leave today, but would call in the course of tomorrow.”
Next day the surgeon and his assistant got to work.
As Hamlin wrote: “(At) about 3 o’clock the painful operation was commenced, it did not last long it was then pinned together and tied with a silk thread round the end of the pins, a plaster was then put on which remained till the Friday following.
“Given that the operation predated anaesthetics and antiseptic — two important breakthroughs in surgery — young George could be forgiven for feeling a little under the weather,” Te Waimate Mission manager Alex Bell said.
“Pain killers were also fairly rudimentary, so the recovery time was probably almost as uncomfortable as the surgery itself. Even the ship’s surgeon was probably a bit rough in his approach — and was possibly more used to carrying out amputations on battleinjured sailors than delicate cosmetic surgery on children.”
Nevertheless, on the Friday the plasters were taken off and more put on. George’s response was not recorded, though it appears he kept a stiff upper lip throughout — helped, no doubt, by the two pins and silk thread.
Eventually the plaster and one of the pins was removed a few days after the operation.
“That was the last time Hamlin mentioned the surgery in his diary, except for a brief reference to getting George’s lip dressed, so presumably the operation was a success,” Mr Bell said.