1832-37. FIRST SURGICAL OPERATION WITNESSED. 35 



they tempt such as prosecute its practice to abandon it. For- 

 tunately for those who continue in its ranks, the first painful 

 impression which the spectacle of great suffering occasions, be- 

 comes, like other first impressions, deadened by repetition. 

 Other impressions, also, come in to lessen their effect. The 

 selfish and unreasonable complaints which sufferers too often 

 make, produce a diversion in favour of the spectator's feelings. 

 Among the daily incidents of even the saddest sick ward, 

 amusing events occur to lighten the tragic darkness which 

 otherwise prevails. The convalescents are ready to cheer and 

 assist the distressed. The medical attendant has the unspeak- 

 able comfort of knowing, that however mysterious may be the 

 origin of the anguish around him, he can generally do something 

 to lessen it, and often can entirely remove it. And the patient 

 is not seldom ready to declare, that the moral gain to him from 

 his sufferings has been such, that he counts them a small price 

 to have paid for such a reward. 



" The first surgical operation which I saw performed in the 

 Edinburgh Infirmary, soon after becoming an apprentice there, 

 was the amputation of a sailor's leg above the knee. The 

 spectacle, for which I was quite unprepared, sufficiently horrified 

 a boy fresh from school, especially as the patient underwent the 

 operation without the assistance of anaesthetics, which were not 

 introduced into surgical practice till many years later. Some 

 days after the operation, when the horror of the first shock had 

 passed away, I resolved to visit the poor fellow, who happened 

 to be a namesake, and see if I could render him any little ser- 

 vice. I went, however, with no little hesitation, expecting to 

 find him in the same state of suffering and prostration as I had 

 seen him in before, and fearing that I should only distress my- 

 self, without doing him any good. I was agreeably surprised, 

 however, and indeed amused, to find the invalid half propped 

 up in bed, and intently occupied with a blacking-brush, bor- 

 rowed from the nurse, polishing the single shoe which in six 

 weeks, or a month at soonest, he might hope to wear. I could 

 not help smiling in his face, and wishing him a speedy return 

 to his shoe, which at once became the text of a cheerful con- 

 versation. The ludicrous inappropriateness, as it then seemed 



