AND HORSEHAIR AS A DRAIN FOR WOUNDS 451 



But though sound general principles are the most important things that 

 we can discuss together, they are, of course, far from being all that we consider. 

 Every case of special interest is brought before you, its diagnosis is carefully 

 considered, and the method of treatment to be adopted is discussed in all its 

 details ; and then, if an operation has to be performed, whether, as is often the 

 case, in the course of the lecture, or at some other time, you are prepared to 

 profit by watching its performance, having all the steps of the procedure clearly 

 in your minds beforehand. 



I may take this opportunity of expressing m\^ sincere regret that certain 

 expressions which I employed before I left Edinburgh should have seemed 

 capable of interpretation as casting the remotest possible slur on the surgeons 

 of this metropolis. Nothing certainly was further from my intention. I did, 

 indeed, while speaking under circumstances peculiarly difficult and embarrassing, 

 allow an expression to escape my lips which I should not have uttered under 

 an}' circumstances had I supposed that my remarks were likely to be published ; 

 and I am truly sorry for the needless offence which I have thus given. For the 

 leading surgeons of London no one, I venture to sa}', entertains higher respects 

 than myself. I referred not to the London teachers, but to the sj-stem on 

 which clinical surgical lectures were given in London ; which, so far as my 

 knowledge extended, seemed to me essentially inferior to that in use in Edin- 

 burgh ; partly because they were not demonstrative, and partly because, being 

 given at rarer intervals and in conjunction with one or more colleagues, they 

 could not, from the nature of things, approach to the characters of a complete 

 course. 



Not that I wish to underrate such clinical lectures in London as I refer to. 

 In proportion to the ability and experience of the lecturer such discourses have 

 their high value. But referring, as they do, to cases which are not present 

 before the student, and which many of the audience may perhaps never have 

 seen at all, they might often, except for the effects of voice and manner, be as 

 well read as attended. Such lectures are in reality far more ambitious and 

 involve greater talent and literary effort than ours, which are comparati\-ely 

 humble performances, standing much in the same relation to a course of 

 systematic surgery as anatomical demonstrations to lectures on anatomy. But, 

 simple as they are, they fill a place in the medical curriculum which. I believe, 

 is second in importance to no other, and which cannot be filled adequately either 

 by chnical lectures otherwise conducted, or bv bedside teaching or tutorial 

 instruction. 



My own conviction of the importance of the subject is. at least, sufficiently 

 shown by the fact that upon the question whether or not arrangements 



