On Comparatwe ^Anatomy, and the 



1. We have been enabled to obtain precise ideas of the 

 nature and seat of some serious diseases of the animal frame. 

 Of the facts illustrative of this position, one of the most im- 

 portant to mankind is the knowledge of the cause of the lo- 

 cal and general disease that sometimes succeeds the opera- 

 tion of bleeding in the arm. — For a long time the inflamma- 

 tion and suppuration beginning at the orifice made by a 

 lancet, and the fever that ensued, were ascribed to a punc- 

 ture of the tendon of the biceps muscle, or of the fascia of 

 the arm, or of a nerve ; by others these symptoms were sup- 

 posed to originate from a bad habit, or from the introduc- 

 tion of some poison adhering to the lancet -, but that great 

 benefactor to medical science and to surgery, the late John 

 Hunter, of London, having observed a similar accident to 

 take place after the rough operation of bleeding horses in the 

 neck, was led to ascribe the disease in both cases to the 

 same cause, viz. an inflammation of the internal coat of the 

 vein ; and repeated dissections of inflamed veins, in which 

 the operation had been performed, have proved the accura- 

 cy of his opinion. By the elucidation of the disease in ques- 

 tion, Mr. Hunter has made us acquainted with the true cause 

 and seat of a serious disease, and increased the obligations 

 lie has laid the medical world under, by his other improve- 

 ments in surgery and medicine.^^ 



2. We have been indebted to the brute creation for one of 

 the greatest temporal blessings, ever conferred upon man- 

 kind by Providence, in the discovery, that by conveying from 

 a small pustule on a cow's udder a particle of matter, under 

 the cuticle of a human subject, he is secured against that 

 scourge of his existence, the small pox. If before this 

 new source of happiness to mankind had been drawn from 

 that animal, such an event as that Just mentioned, had 

 been declared within the compass of possibility, it would 

 have been thought as improbable as the one I now venture to 

 express, viz. that there is reason to believe, as in the instance 



