CHIRURGERr. 425 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHIRURGERY. 



UNDER the former name of Chirurgery, we would comprise all 

 that branch of Androphysics which relates to manual operations for 

 medical purposes ; including Surgery, as at present defined, and 

 other subordinate subjects. The name is derived from the Greek, 

 #tp, the hand ; and epyof, a work or operation ; and the word 

 Surgery, may be traced to the same original. It relates chiefly to the 

 treatment of wounds, fractures, dislocations or sprains, tumors, 

 ulcers, and such deformities as can be removed by mechanical means ; 

 but for these purposes, it presupposes a general knowledge of Medi- 

 cine, and a thorough knowledge of Anatomy, both to perform the 

 operations aright, and to administer the proper means of recovery 

 from their effects. The practice of Surgery, requires the utmost 

 firmness, self-possession, skill, and dexterity ; without which, the 

 more critical operations, where life hangs upon a single touch, should 

 not be attempted. 



The practice of Surgery, doubtless commenced with the dressing 

 of wounds, caused by accident, or inflicted in war. It is related that 

 Chiron, and his disciple JEsculapius, accompanied the Argonautic 

 expedition,^ to take care of the wounded and sick ; and that this 

 office was-"performed, during the Trojan war, by Machaon and Po- 

 dalirius, the sons of jEsculapius. The Greek and Roman physi- 

 cians practised both medicine and surgery, as far as then known ; 

 though the latter branch began to be treated separately, as early as 

 300 B. C. Hippocrates practised blood-letting, with the lancet ; 

 trepanning, for injuries of the brain ; and cauterizing, for the removal 

 of ulcers. Celsus invented ligatures, for wounded arteries ; ampu- 

 tation, for gangrened limbs ; couching, for cataract in the eye ; the 

 use of cupping-glasses, for drawing blood by scarification; and a 

 mode of lithotomy, still called the Celsian operation. Galen wrote 

 on ruptures, and bandages ; and Paulus ^Egineta, who flourished 

 A. D. 640, and invented bronchotomy, wrote the last classic work of 

 merit on this science. 



Among the Arabians, Avenzoar, and Albucasis wrote briefly on 

 Surgery ; but this art was practised chiefly by women and slaves. 

 In Christendom, it was practised by the monks, till A. D. 1163; 

 when this avocation was prohibited to them, by the Council of 

 Tours ; on the plea that the church abhorred all bloodshed. Surgery 

 was then given over to the barbers ; and degenerated to mere blood- 

 letting, and bandaging of wounds, with minor empirical operations. 

 The first English work on this art, was written by Gilbert Anglicus, 

 about the year 1300 ; and this was followed by the French work of 

 Chauliac, and the Latin one of Vidius : but it was not until 1585, 

 that Ambrose Pare, who styled himself barber-surgeon, profiting by 

 the new anatomical discoveries, wrote a work on Surgery, which 

 greatly assisted in raising this branch to its proper station in the 

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