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LECTURES

ON THE

PROGRESS OF ANATOMY AND SURGERY DURING

THE PRESENT CENTURY.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY.

MR PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,-When the honour was conferred upon me of being appointed Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery to this College, I felt uncertain as to the manner in which I could best fulfil the duties pertaining to such an important office. Considering the vast fields of anatomy and of surgery which I had to choose from, the difficulty of selecting subjects for six lectures seemed far from great; yet reflection indicated that already the labourer had been at work. In most departments the harvest had been stored, and little remained to be gleaned or garnered which could possibly be put in comparison with the knowledge already in man's possession. To one who has been a labourer in our profession for well-nigh forty years such a selection might at first thought

A

interest, or had peculiar opportunities of studying, and lay them before my hearers in such a way as to give the appearance of novelty and attraction to an audience assembled in the heart of London, and in the metropolitan abode of English surgery.

Of the two courses I have preferred the latter. If I have nothing to say that is new to my own mind, I may still labour, though in a somewhat novel sphere, to impress such truths as I have learned from experience, to doubt where I have reason still to do so, and to venture such suggestions and forecasts of thought as may become one who has spent his whole professional life in teaching, and who now finds himself in the responsible office of Professor of Human Anatomy and of Surgery in this great corporation.

About the year 1825, when my first intimate connection with the profession began, there was a period of calm (at least that is my impression) such as had not been for many years, and such as none of the present generation have seen. There was nothing new in British surgery, and little from abroad to attract special attention. The great impulse given by Hunter and his disciples had been in a manner embodied with, or as some might think, become the embodiment of the profession. On the Continent, amongst surgeons Dupuytren stood supreme; whilst Graefe, Lisfranc, Larrey, Dieffenbach, and Roux, were but a shade behind. The latter had written his celebrated "Parallel," and already Velpeau had indicated his growing worth. In America, the names of Mott and Warren were associated with

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