240 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



make a small cut in your thigh, I may save your life 

 and limb both.' ' God bless you, sir,' says the sufferer ; 

 ' do what you think best, so you put me soon out of 

 this torment.' A ligature is thereupon put on the 

 femoral artery, and immediately the tumour ceases to 

 beat and begins to diminish. The patient exclaims 

 that his agony is over. True, the leg begins to chill. 

 Hunter will have no artificial heat applied, only flannels 

 swathed round the foot and leg. In a day the natural 

 warmth begins to return, but not the pulsations in the 

 tumour. The morbid mass grows smaller and smaller, 

 and in six weeks the coachman walked out of the 

 hospital on both legs, cured of his aneurism. This 

 was in 1793. In the years which have elapsed since, 

 how many hundreds have been saved from torture and 

 the risk of death by the application of this method, 

 which substituted a comparatively trifling operation for 

 rarely successful amputation. Even the operation is now 

 usually avoided, pressure being substituted for ligature. 

 And this is but one instance among many. Every one 

 who wishes to gain a just and honest opinion on the 

 vivisection question, should read this interesting work 

 by our veteran naturalist. But those who wish to gain 

 a cheap reputation for tender heartedness should avoid 

 it, lest it convince them, against their will, that their 

 tender mercies are very cruel. 



Knowledge. 



