INTRODUCTION. 43 



in several subsequent years. The scarlet fever and the measles have, during 

 the last twelve years, been unusually rife, and the varioloid, or modified small 

 pox, has again and again intruded, and sometimes with great malignity. Have 

 the two former diseases acquired more power with their increasing virulence l Has 

 the frequent recurrence of the varioloid a tendency to impair confidence in the 

 efficacy of vaccination ? These are inquiries in which the happiness of man- 

 kind are deeply interested. 



Previously to the revolution, and for some time afterwards, the art of surgery 

 was neglected. The United States furnished no schools, and chirurgical know- 

 ledge was confined to those who had received a foreign education. A post mor- 

 tem anatomical examination is recorded as early as 1691. The subject was the 

 body of governor Sloughter, who had suddenly died under circumstances cre- 

 ating a suspicion of poison. The account of the dissection is sufficiently minute 

 and satisfactory to do away the imputation, and the pathological conclusions of 

 the surgeons concerning the cause of death corresponded with the received 

 doctrines of that age. The earliest anatomical dissection, for the purpose of 

 imparting knowledge, was performed in 1750, by doctors John Bard and Peter 

 Middleton ; the subject was a convicted felon. 



John Jones, already mentioned as one of the faculty of King's College, first 

 performed the operation of lithotomy in the city of New- York. He produced, 

 in 1775, "Plain Remarks upon Wounds and Fractures," which was the first sur- 

 gical treatise printed in America, and became a text book. Dr. Bayley, in 1782, 

 successfully performed the operation of amputating the arm at the shoulder joint, 

 which had not before been attempted in this country. Dr. McKnight, in 1790, 

 accomplished a bold and difficult operation in obstetrics, until then unattempted 

 here, except in a case thirty years previous, when it was performed by Dr. John 

 Bard. 



Surgery is now taught in all our medical schools, and facilities are afforded in 

 them all, for the study of practical anatomy. Yet there is a deficiency of advan- 

 tages for imparting that perfect clinical instruction that can only be given in an 



