APPENDIX. 349 



in the last resource, although no practitioner 

 has been more distinguished for a steady and 

 skilful hand in an operation than himself, where 

 necessity drew him to the expedient. — On the 

 peace in 1763, he returned and settled in Lon- 

 don as a surgeon, and came, in a very short 

 time, to the possession of an extensive practice. 

 Now it was that he began to form his system. 

 In books he found, as we have mentioned, no 

 other lights in the investigation of surgery, 

 than what arose from the enumeration of in- 

 dependent facts and cases, without reasoning 

 and without principles. He totally rejected 

 books, and took up the volume of the animal 

 body. — He was as indefatigable in his pursuits, 

 as he was adventurous in his conduct. Though 

 an enemy to operations on others, he was re- 

 gardless of himself, and exposed his person to 

 all the active and artificial powers, by which 

 he might ascertain the properties, and trace 

 the effects of medicine on the human frame. 

 He was not deterred by the shocks which such 

 trials must necessarily give to his constitution ; 

 nor by the fatigue, labour, and loss to which 

 they exposed him. He began at the same 

 time to form his collection of diseases ; and for 

 this purpose he attended the various hospitals, 

 in order to see the curious cases, and to ob- 

 serve, with his own eyes, the progress of the 



