'258 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 294. 



was urging at the Hotel Dieu the adoption 

 of arterial ligature in place of the caustic 

 even then in vogue. Dionis too, although 

 he advised the Marian operation for stone, 

 considered that the risks of the suprapubic 

 method had been overestimated, an opinion 

 revived and insisted on by Sir Henry 

 Thompson in our own time. 



We all remember J. L. Petit (1674-1750), 

 who invented the tourniquet known by his 

 name in the early part of the last century, 

 and Anel, who tied the branchial artery 

 for traumatic aneurysm at the bend of the 

 elbow, upon which procedure a claim was 

 based for priority over Hunter, though 

 Hunter's operation is wholly distinct in the 

 principle involved. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury Desault, who nearly lost his life in the 

 Revolution, was the leading French sur- 

 geon. He was accused of poisoning the 

 wounds of some of his revolutionary pa- 

 tients in the Hotel Dieu, and to be accused 

 was in those times almost the same thing 

 as being condemned. Desault, whose fame 

 has been eclipsed by the brilliance of his 

 pupil Bichat, was the first surgeon to teach 

 surgical anatomy after the modern manner, 

 although the great French hospital where 

 he practiced was described at that time as 

 ' the oldest, largest, richest, and worst hos- 

 pital in Europe.' I need not refer to moi-e 

 recent and greatly honored names — Dupuy- 

 tren, VelpCau, Nelaton, and many others. 



In German}', even so recently as 100 

 years ago, surgery was at a low ebb. 

 George Fischer tells us that quacks of all 

 kinds, ' cutters ' for stone and hernia, cata- 

 ract operators, and bonesetters, flourished 

 in the land. The public executioner, whose 

 business it was to fracture bones and dis- 

 locate joints on the rack, was supposed 

 thereby to have acquired a knowledge of 

 disorders of these parts, and was consulted 

 freely about them — so much so that Freder- 

 ick the Great in 1744 published a decree 



limiting the powers of these men, and while 

 permitting them to treat fractures, wounds 

 and ulcers, forbade them to practice medi- 

 cine. Hildanus (1560-1634) , who lived in 

 Germany at the end of the sixteenth and 

 beginning of the seventeenth century, has 

 been called the Father of German surgery. 

 He was a voluminous writer, a bold operator 

 and his Opera Omnia was a work of refer- 

 ence for many years. Heister (1683-1758), 

 a surgeon of much note in the eighteenth 

 century, wrote a General Surgery, which en- 

 joyed much repute, and was translated into 

 English. Bilguer (1720-1796), a surgeon- 

 general in the German army was noted for 

 opposing the indiscriminate amputation of 

 limbs then in vogue for gunshot fracture 

 of the extremities, which his predecessor 

 Schmucker had warmly advocated and 

 practiced to an inordinate extent. 



Towards the end of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury Von Siebold (1736-1807), a famous 

 surgeon, who enjoyed great repute as a 

 clinical teacher and operator, taught anat- 

 omy at Wiirzburg and about the same 

 time Eichter (1742-1812) was Professor of 

 Surgery at Gottingen. Eichter had trav- 

 elled much, was familiar with the work 

 done in England and France, and was the 

 best writer and teacher of his day. He was 

 the first to place surgery in Germany on a 

 truly scientific basis. Of those German 

 surgeons whose names still fill our ears with 

 their fame, and whose loss we have recently 

 deplored — Stromeyer, Langenbeck, Bill- 

 roth, Volkmann, Thiersch, Nussbaum and 

 others — I could only repeat what all of you 

 know as well as or better than I. 



The first English surgeon of whom we 

 possess any definite knowledge, and whose 

 writings are still in existence, is John of 

 Arderne. He was born in 1307. He must 

 have been an accurate and close observer, 

 to judge by the graphic description he 

 furnishes of cancer of the rectum. He 

 says: 



