10 



ber of good writers are upon this subject, in compari- 

 j?cn of (hose who have written upon other branches of 

 the arts and sciences. Whoever is conversant with the 

 writings of the ancients, and has skill to judge of their 

 ineiit in his own practice, will ingenuously own, that 

 what renders the reading of them more useful than those 

 of the moderns, is, that they are more exact in de. 

 scribing the symptoms and indications of disorders, 

 and more just and precise than the moderns, in dis- 

 tinguishing the different species of ulcers and tumors. 

 If our age has retrenched some superfluities of practice, 

 as it must be owned it has ; yet it cannot be shewn 

 that tlu-se methods came from the ancients. It is much 

 more probable that they were in a great measure in- 

 troduced by the ignorant professors of a later date. 

 There is no doubt but the perfection to which surgery 

 lias been carried in these last ages, is principally owing 

 to the discoveries which have been made in anatomy, 

 by means of which we are enabled to give a reason for 

 many of the phenomena which were before inex plica, 

 ble. But the most essential part, the art of curing 

 wounds, to which all the other parts ought to give way, 

 remains almost in the very same state, in which the 

 ancients transmitted it to us. \VhatI have said is in. 

 contestable ; and for prouf of it, T appeal to every 

 course of surgery that has been published by the most 

 celebrated among the moderns, all of which appear to 

 be but transcripts of one another, excepting those of 

 greatest note, which are taken from the ancienls. 

 Among all the writers of systems, few deny the pre- 

 eminence to Fabricius ab Aquapendente, a man of ex- 

 quisite learning a*id judgment, but who h not ashamed 

 to declare thatCelsus, among the Latins, Paul Eginetus, 

 among the Greeks, and Aibucasis, among the Ara- 

 bians, are those to whom he is most indebted in the 

 composition of iiis excellent work, But it will be said 

 that a great many methods of operation are at present 

 in use, which were unknown to the ancients. I fear, 

 on the contrary, that an impartial examination into 

 this would discoYtr many more? and of greater utility. 



