816 



SURF-BIKD 



SURGERY 



any impurities that may settle on it ; and hence 

 amen the great difficulty of getting a clean water 

 or mercury surface. Drops of liquid, free from all 

 but their own molecular forces, assume spherical 

 forms, this being the only shape consistent with 

 equilibrium uiulcr the influence of equal surface- 

 ten-ion at all parts of the curved surface. Hippies 

 on the surface of any liquid progress twcause of the 

 action of surface-tension, which gixc< ri-e to an 

 inward pressure on any convex surface. The laws 

 governing the propagation of ripples on the surface 

 of mercury have Ix-cn recently studien I./ Professor 

 C. Mii'liit- Smith and Lord Rayleigu! Some very 

 instructive experiments may lie made with soap- 

 iilms (see SOAP-BUBBLES); while in cohesion figures 

 we have some xcry exquisite phenOBMM, which 

 have been closely studied by Tomlinson. These are 

 produced liy dropping a dark-coloured liquiil into 

 a transparent liquid of slightly smaller density. 

 Ordinary ink dropped into water will serve the 

 purpose very well, although better effects are ob- 

 tained with a solution of permanganate of potash. 

 As the drop meets the w;iter -surface, the action of 

 the surface-tension pulls the under surface of the 

 drop outwards, and transforms the drop into a 

 vortex ring, which slowly sinks through the clear 

 fluid. As it so sinks it breaks up into smaller 

 rings and shoots out fantastic ramifications of rare 

 beauty. Ultimately, of course, under the influence 

 of ditl'iision, tin* vortex motion decays and the dark 

 liquid mixes with the clear liquid. 



Surf-bird (A/>/n-i:n virgata), a plover-like bird 

 found on the Pacific coasts of North and South 

 America, akin to sandpipers and turnstones, and 

 sometimes called Boreal Sandpiper. The Surf- 

 duck or Scoter is treated at SCOTER. 



Surgeons, COLLEGE OF. The present ' Royal 



College of Surgeons of England' dates its origin 

 from 1460-61, when Edward IV. ' did, at the suppli- 

 cation of the freemen of the mystery of barbers of 

 the city of London using the mystery or faculty 

 of Surgery, grant t<> them Unit the sjii.l mystery, 

 and all the men of the same mystery of the said 

 city, should be one body and perpetual community.' 

 An act of 1511 prohibits anyone from pi.u-ti-ing 

 as physician or surgeon unless duly examined and 

 admitted. Hence arose a company called the Sur- 

 geons of London. In 1540 the Company of Hail" -i- 

 of London and the Company of Surgeons of London 

 were united ; it was not till 1745 till the surgeons of 

 London were by act of parliament separated from 

 the barbers of London, and made a di-tinct corpor- 

 ation under the name of 'the Master, Governors, 

 and Commonalty of the Art and Science of Surgery 

 of London.' This company was dissolved, and in 

 1800 replaced by 'the Royal College of Surgeons of 

 London.' A new charter granted in 1843 to the 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England gave power 

 to the council to elect not less than 250, nor more 

 than .'K>. memliers of the college to be Fellows. 

 "!.x an addition to the charter, obtained in 1852, 

 power was given to the council, subject to certain 



regulations, to aiqioint i liers of fifteen year-' 



standing to the fellowship without examination. 

 The college was likewise empowered to test the 

 fitness of persons to practise midwifery and to 

 grant certificates ; in 1859 it was similarly author- 

 ised to grant certificates to dentists; finally, in 

 1888 certain additional jKixver- were conferred, 

 but the duty of examining in midwifery was with- 

 drawn. 



The government of the college is ve-ted in a 

 Council of twenty-four persons, inrludiiiu' one 

 president ami two vice-presidents; and none but 

 Fellows are eligible There is a Board and a 

 Court of Examiners for the fellowship, and examin- 

 ing boards for the membership. There are pro- 



fessorships of comparative anatomy and physiology, 

 of surgery and pathology, and of dermatology, 

 besides lecture-hip-. A llnnterian Orator i 

 appointed every second year. The museum ut 

 the College of Surgeons is incomparably the li: 

 museum of its kind in the I nitcd Kingdom. The 

 llnnterian Collection ( see 111 MM:, .loiix), which 

 forms its basis, was purchased by a parliamentai\ 

 vote of 1*15, (KM), and presented to the college in 17'. HI. 

 The original edifice in Lincoln's Inn Fields ithe 

 germ of the present pile of building-) was completed 

 in 1813. See the Calendar of the en':' 



TlIK H<>YAL Col.LKUE OK Si l:..l.ti\s ( KlHV 



1:1 1:1.11 obtained their first charter in l.vi.V ami 

 had it confirmed by James IV. next year. For a 

 century and a half the members of the craft "en- 

 sole teachers and almost sole professors of the 

 surgical art in Edinburgh. In 1694 they obtained 

 from the tmvii-council a grant of the lnlies of 

 convicts and foundling infants ; in 1705 the pro- 

 fessorship of anatomy was founded ; alxiut the 

 same date botany, chemistry, and physic were 

 taught; in 1726 the teachers of theory of plixsic, 

 practice of physic, and chemistry in the college 

 were constituted professors of medicine, and from 

 this time the constitution i>f the medical school in 

 the university dates ; ami in 1778 this college lie- 

 0*e royal college. The pic-ent building, dating 

 from 1832, possesses a tine museum. The college 

 grants the diplomas of Fellow, Licentiate, Licen- 

 tiate in Dental Surgery, and a diploma in public 

 health; about 300 diplomas are granted annually. 

 The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland was in- 

 corporatea in 1786 ; see history by Cameron (1886). 



Surgery, or manual intervention, mediate and 

 immediate, in all lesions or inali'oimaiions of the 

 human body, was already an art when medicine 

 proper was but a phase of superstition. The earliest 

 notices of it occur among the Egyptians, who, as 

 we find repie-cnted on obelisk and in temple, 

 practised incisions, scarifications, probably ex en 

 amputation, long before the date of the F.ber- 

 papyrus (3500 B.C. ). Castration (to supply eunuchs 

 for the royal harem) was also a frequent operation. 

 Preserved in museums may be seen surgical instru- 

 ments contemporary with votive otlerings of the 

 remotest Egyptian epoch lancets, tweezers, cathe- 

 ters, uterine specula, iron rods for the actual 

 cautery, &c. Among other indications of early 

 proficiency in ophthalmic surgery, couching cataract 

 must have been known lo them. 



Jewish surgery, like Jewish medicine, was an 

 importation from the Egyptians. The sexual 

 regulations characteristic of the Jews affected 

 their ,-urgeiy, from simple circumci.-ion up to the 

 Ca-arean section, which very early in tJ.eir history 

 was practised on pregnant women in death as in 

 life. 



\Yitliout entering into the controversy as to the 

 Greek origin of the Indian healing ait, \\e find 

 surgery enjoying high esteem among the Indian- 

 ill very remote time-. 'A physician who is no 

 surgeon. 1 so ran their proverb. ' is like a bird with 

 but one wing.' Surgical instruments skilfully 

 made of steel, to the iminlxT of 127, still attest 

 their proficiency in cutting and cauterising the 

 latter performed in oWrvance of an aphorism 

 quite Hippocratic iii its ring '\Vhat drugs and 

 knives cannot cure may be cured with fin'.' Their 

 surgeons xvere trained to operate by practising not 

 on animals or on the dead human subject, but on 

 wax-em ered hoards, on beasts' skins, or on succulent 

 plants and fruits, lliunorrliage they checked by- 

 cold, by compression, and by styptics. The liga- 

 ture they seem not to have known. Amputation 

 was confined to the hand in cases of intractable 

 ha morrhage. Lips or surfaces of wounds they 

 smeared with an arsenical salve. For intus-guscep- 



