14 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. II. 



to abandon it. Fortunately for those who continue in its 

 ranks, the first painful impression which the spectacle of 

 great suffering occasions, becomes, like other first impres- 

 sions, deadened by repetition. Other impressions, also, 

 come in to lessen their effect. The selfish and unreason- 

 able complaints which sufferers too often make produce a 

 diversion in favour of the spectator's feelings. Among the 

 daily incidents of even the saddest sick ward, amusing 

 events occur to lighten the tragic darkness which otherwise 

 prevails. The convalescents are ready to cheer and assist 

 the distressed. The medical attendant has the unspeakable 

 comfort of knowing, that however mysterious may be the 

 origin of the anguish around him, he can generally do 

 something to lessen it, and often can entirely remove it. 

 And the patient is not seldom ready to declare, that the 

 moral gain to him from his sufferings has been such, that he 

 counts them a small price to have paid for such a reward. 



" The first surgical operation which I saw performed in the 

 Edinburgh Infirmary, soon after becoming an apprentice 

 there, was the amputation of a sailor's leg above the knee. 

 The spectacle, for which I was quite unprepared, sufficiently 

 horrified a boy fresh from school, especially as the patient 

 underwent the operation without the assistance of anaesthe- 

 tics, which were not introduced into surgical practice till 

 many years later. Some days after the operation, when the 

 horror of the first shock had passed away, I resolved to 

 visit the poor fellow, who happened to be a namesake, and 

 see if I could render him any little service. I went, how- 

 ever, with no little hesitation, expecting to find him in the 

 same state of suffering and prostration as I had seen him 

 in before, and fearing that I should only distress myself, 

 without doing him any good. I was agreeably surprised, 

 however, and indeed amused, to find the invalid half 



