Medicine. 30S 



But the greatest of all improvements in surgery 

 which the eighteenth century can boast, consists in 

 the maxim o^ Saving Skin in all operations, and in 

 the universal doctrine and practice of Adhesion, as 

 now received. This improvement is so simple 

 and so important that it is wonderful to find it 

 reserved for the surgeons of so late a period. The 

 merit of this discovery does not seem to belong ex- 

 clusively to any individual. A share of it doubt- 

 less attaches to Mr. Alakson, of Liverpool, in 

 Great-Britain, and several others who directed 

 their inquiries to this object about the same time. 

 But to Mr. John Hunter more is certainly due 

 than to any other person. This improvement was 

 first applied to amputation, then to the operation 

 of the trepan, next to the extirpation of schirrous 

 mammae, afterwards to all the great operations, and, 

 lastly, to all recent wounds. In short, it would 

 not be too much to assert, that this doctrine and 

 practice of adhesion has done mor6 to promote the 

 progress of surgery, within a few years, than any 

 discovery of modern times, not excepting, per- 

 haps, even that of the circulation of the blood. 



It remains to offer a few remarks concerning the 

 progress of Obstetricks in the late century. By 

 this term it is usual now to understand not only 

 the art of facilitating the birth of children, but 

 that of managing pregnant and puerperal women. 

 During the period of our retrospect, the improve- 

 ments which this art has received may justly be 

 considered as numerous and important, and fully 

 equal to those which are claimed in the other de- 

 partments of medicine. 



Both the theory and practice of obstetricks have 

 assumed a much more regular and scientific form 

 within the period in question. The anatomical 

 structure of the body, so far as it concerns this art, 

 was well understood in former ages. But the in- 



