3;0 Medicine. [Chap. IV. 



system in possession of the public. This work com- 

 prised whatever the experience of former times had 

 approved as useful, and such observations and 

 precepts as the knowledge and experience of the 

 learned author himself enabled him to add. Some 

 other systematic arrangements of chirurgical know- 

 ledge were, indeed, attempted about the middle of 

 the century. Platner, professor of surgery at Leipsic, 

 published his Institutes of Surgery in the year 1745; 

 and Ludwig, of the same university, favoured the 

 world with a similar publication in 1767. But both 

 these works, though possessed of great merit, are 

 too compendious to give a clear and distinct ac- 

 count of the numerous topics of which they 

 treat. 



In Great Britain, Mr. Cheselden was much di- 

 stinguished by his chirurgical eminence in the early 

 part of the century. He improved the lateral ope- 

 ration of Lithotomy y and devoted much attention to 

 the diseases of the Eyes. His pupil, Mr. Samuel 

 Sharpe, obtained soon afterwards a high reputation. 

 His Treatise on the Operations of Surgery, and his 

 Critical Inquiry, were deservedly considered as 

 performances of great value at that period. The 

 elder Monro, of the university of Edinburgh, de- 

 serves also to be mentioned among those who did 

 much to improve the practice of surgery about 

 that time. Towards the middle of the centu- 

 ry Dr. William Hunter began to acquire great 

 celebrity as an anatomist and surgeon, and was 

 joined not long afterwards by his brother, Mr. John 

 Hunter, who, as an operator, was still more di- 

 stinguished. To the exertions of these eminent men 

 the art is indebted for many valuable irnprovementSj 



