HUNTERIAN ORATION. I9 



tise, except in slight cases. In process of 

 time, however, the barbers attended lectures, 

 and became as well informed as the inferior 

 class of surgeons, and being still patronised 

 and instructed by their old friends the 

 learned doctors, they at length obtained an 

 establishment as regular practitioners in 

 France, under the title of barber-surgeons. 

 Of this order was Ambrose Pare, a man of 

 original observation, great candour, and 

 abundant experience, whose works were 

 well calculated to correct the bad and cruel 

 surgery of those times. 



Wherever the priests practised as phy- 

 sicians, the barbers performed the offices of 

 surgeons. As, likewise, medical knowledge 

 radiated from Italy to the northern nations 

 of Europe, so they must have received the 

 information mixed with any absurdity which 

 it might have taken up in its passage ; and 

 this, if we had even the discernment to 

 distinguish, we seem to have wanted the 

 resolution to reject, for the copartnership 

 between surgery and shaving has been 

 but newly dissolved in this country. 

 *' Would heart of man e'er think it, 



c 2 



