INTRODUCTION. 
43 
in several subsequent years. The scarlet fever and the measles have, during 
the last twelve years, been unusually rife, and the varioloid, or modified small 
pox, has again and again intruded, and sometimes with great malignity. Have 
the two former diseases acquired more power with their increasing virulence 1 Has 
the frequent recurrence of the varioloid a tendency to impair confidence in the 
efficacy of vaccination ? These are inquiries in which the happiness of man¬ 
kind are deeply interested. 
Previously to the revolution, and for some time afterwards, the art of surgery 
was neglected. The United States furnished no schools, and chirurgical know¬ 
ledge was confined to those who had received a foreign education. A post mor¬ 
tem anatomical examination is recorded as early as 1691. The subject was the 
body of governor Sloughter, who had suddenly died under circumstances cre¬ 
ating a suspicion of poison. The account of the dissection is sufficiently minute 
and satisfactory to do away the imputation, and the pathological conclusions of 
the surgeons concerning the cause of death corresponded with the received 
doctrines of that age. The earliest anatomical dissection, for the purpose of 
imparting knowledge, was performed in 1750, by doctors John Bard and Peter 
Middleton; the subject was a convicted felon. 
John Jones, already mentioned as one of the faculty of King’s College, first 
performed the operation of lithotomy in the city of New-York. He produced, 
in 1775, “Plain Remarks upon Wounds and Fractures,” which was the first sur¬ 
gical treatise printed in America, and became a text book. Dr. Bayley, in 1782, 
successfully performed the operation of amputating the arm at the shoulder joint, 
which had not before been attempted in this country. Dr. McKnight, in 1790, 
accomplished a bold and difficult operation in obstetrics, until then unattempted 
here, except in a case thirty years previous, when it was performed by Dr. John 
Bard. 
Surgery is now taught in all our medical schools, and facilities are afforded in 
them all, for the study of practical anatomy. Yet there is a deficiency of advan¬ 
tages for imparting that perfect clinical instruction that can only be given in an 
