20 HUNTERIAN ORATION. 



but you'll be silent." This foolery was 

 continued so nearly to the present timey 

 that even I myself have often doft my cap 

 to barber-surgeons. Edward the Fourth, in 

 the year 1461, granted a charter of in- 

 corporation and privilege to barber-sur-' 

 geons ; and though the distinct nature of 

 the two professions gradually became more 

 and more apparent, yet they were not se- 

 parated till nearly three centuries had 

 elapsed, till the year 1745. 



The legitimate practice of surgery did 

 not, however, remain uncultivated nor un- 

 patronised by different sovereigns. My 

 time does not permit me to relate various 

 instances, and I question ix /iK)re than one 

 can be adduced, in which the means adopted 

 were judicious and efficient. Louis the Four- 

 teenth, from being continually engaged in 

 war, seems first to have clearly discerned 

 the nature and importance of surgery, and 

 the proper measures by which it might and 

 ought to be promoted. He established 

 hospitals, colleges, and professorships ; he 

 ordered that lectures on surgery should be 

 given by surgeons of acknowledged ability, 



H 



