S U R 
733 
& U R 
rf/SO-f yM2__y2Q-f yHg V'S -f V* 3 
ys - v^~ v^Vs X v/HV 3 
V 100 + 2^60 + 6 _ 16 4 - 2^60 _ Q 
5—3 ” 2 ~ 
2yT5. To do this generally, see Maclaurin, 
lib. cit. p. 1 13. 
When the square root of a surd is required, it 
may be found, nearly, by extracting the root 
of a rational quantity that approximates to its 
value. Thus to find the square root of 3 -f- 2^/2, 
first calculate ^/2 = 1,41421. Hence 3 
— 5,82842, the root of which is found to be 
nearly 2,41421. 
In like manner we may proceed with any 
other proposed root. And if the index of the 
root, proposed to be extracted, is great, a table 
of logarithms may be used. Thus if 5 -f- ’y/17 
may be most conveniently found by logarithms. 
Take the logarithm of 17, divide it by 13; 
find the number corresponding to the quotient; 
add this number to 5; find the logarithm of the 
sum, and divide it by 7, and the number cor- 
responding to this quotient will be nearly equal 
to^/5 + V 17 - 
But it is sometimes requisite to express the 
roots of surds exactly by other surds. Thus, in 
the first example, the square root of 3 -f- 2^2 
is i -f- V 2 ; f° r i-j-yTx 1 + 
V2.~M = 3 +2\ /2. For the method of per- I 
forming this, the curious may consult Mr. Mac- 
laurin’s Algebra, where also rules for trinomials, 
&c. may be found. 
SURETY, in law, generally signifies the 
same with bail. See Rail. 
SURETY of the peace. A justice of the 
peace may, according to his discretion, bind 
all those to keep the peace, who in his pre- 
sence shall make any affray, or shall threaten 
to kill or heat any person, or shall contend 
together in hot wcyrds; and all those who 
shall go about with unlawful weapons or at- 
tendance to the terror of the people ; and all 
such persons as shall be known by him to be 
common barrators; and all who shall be 
brought before him by a constable, for a 
breach of the peace in the presence of such 
constable ; and all such persons who, having 
been before bound to keep the peace, shall 
be convicted of having forfeited their recog- 
nizance. Lamb, 77. 
AVlien surety of the peace is granted by 
the court of king’s bench, if a supersedeas 
comes from the court of chancery to the jus- 
tices of that court, their power is at an end ; 
and the party as to them discharged. 
If security of the peace is desired against 
a peer, the safest way is to apply to the court 
«f chancery, or king’s bench. 1 Haw. 127. 
If the person against whom security of the 
peace is demanded, is present, the justice of 
the peace may commit him immediately, un- 
less he offers sureties ; and a fortiori he may 
be commanded to find sureties, and be com- 
mitted for not doing it. Id. 
Surety of the good behaviour, includes 
the peace ; and he that is bound to the good 
behaviour, is therein also bound to the peace ; 
and yet a man may be compel .ed to find 
sureties beth for the good behaviour and the 
peace. Dalt. c. 122. See Good Beha- 
viour. 
SURFEIT. See Medicine. 
SURGERY, is the art of curing or al- 
leviating diseases by local and external ap- 
plications, manual or instrumental. As a 
science it may be defined, that department 
of medicine ’“which treats of maladies thus 
susceptible of alleviation or cure. 
Tuis, like other parts of medicine, 
must necessarily have been practised in the 
earliest ages; and the supposition has the 
authority of history, both sacred *and profane, 
that the' whole of the healing art was for some 
time restricted to the treatment ol external 
injuries ; and that consequently, surgery has 
not merely been coeval with, but antecedent 
to, the other branches of medical science. 
The history, however, of surgery, among 
the early Asiatics, and even as cultivated and 
practised by the Greeks, is involved in fable, 
and obscured by fiction. Hippocrates was 
in a manner the founder of surgery as of me- 
dicine; and it was not indeed until atter the 
time of this author, that the science was di- 
vided into separate branches. This division 
was effected in the time of Ptolemy Philo- 
pater, king of Egypt, and has continued with 
some modifications, but without precise 
limits, down to the present day. 
Among the Romans, Gelsus is the first 
author, in whose writings we meet with any 
thing of importance in relation to this art. 
In the works of Gelsus, we find a minute 
statement of all its improvements, from the 
time of Hippocrates ; and by many among 
even the moderns, an assiduous study of the 
precepts contained in Gelsus, has been ear- 
nestly recommended to the student. The 
Latinitv, however, of this medical classic, is 
greatly’ preferable to his surgery. 
After Gelsus, lived the celebrated Galen, 
whose authority for so long a period influ- 
enced the language and practice of physic, 
and who, although his works are principally 
medicinal, wrote likewise on surgery. Galen 
was the last writer of consequence among 
the Romans. 
About the year 500, Aetius added many 
observations to those of Celsus jmd Galen. 
Aetius was succeeded and much excelled by 
Paulus Egineta, whose surgical writings have 
been pronounced superior to those of all the 
other antients ; this last author, together 
with Celsus, were employed as text-books 
by Fabricius ab Aquapendente, a writer of 
celebrity in the sixteenth century. 
Among the Arabians, Rhazes and Avi- 
cenna are the principal writers who treated of 
surgery. The Canon Medicitne of the latter, a 
compilation principally from Galen and 
Rhazes, was for a number of years held in 
much estimation. It was not, however, until 
the time of Albucasis, that surgery was much 
in repute among the Arabians ; and from this 
period to the 14th century, its history is ex- 
tremely barren. Even at the commences 
meat of the 16th century, “ surgery wa- 
held in contempt in this island, and was prac- 
tised indiscriminately by barbers, farriers, 
and sow-gelders. Barbers and surgeons con- 
tinued for 200 years afterwards to be incor- 
porated in one company, both in London and 
Paris. In Holland and some parts of Ger- 
many, even at this day, barbers exercise the* 
razor and lancet alternately.” 
We find no surgical work worthy of notice 
in the 16th century, before that of Carpus. 
A system published by the above-men- 
tioned Fabricius, shortly afterwards at- 
tracted much notice, and has been highly 
commended by Boerhaave ; about this time 
likewise, Ambrose Paree, a French surgeon, 
made several bold and very important inno. 
sp 
rations in the art as then practised ; one of 
which, viz. the use of the needle and liga- 
ture, for stopping bleeding arteries, in place 
of the cautery, astringents, stjptics, boiling 
oils, and other cruel and absurd practices of 
the older surgeons, has been said by one well 
capable of appreciating its value, to have 
raised Paree to a rank not inferior even to 
that of Harvev, the discoverer ot the circiv- 
latiori. To the works of Paree may be added 
those of Maggius and Botallus, writers on 
gun-shot wounds ; and of Cruce, the author 
of a systematic treatise. 
In the succeeding century, surgery made 
considerable advances. The most conspicu- 
ous writers of this period, are Severinus, 
Vidius, Wiseman, Le Clerc, Scultetus, Man- 
getus, Spigellius, Hildanus, Bartholin, and 
Marchett. 
In our own times, the science of which we 
are now to treat, has begun to assert its just 
claims to an equality with that which is usu- 
ally denominated the science of medicine. 
These claims have been vindicated, not less 
powerfully and successfully by the import- 
ance of surgery, than the respectability of 
its professors. 
A mere enumeration, however, of the 
names and writings of such as have been de- 
servedly celebrated in the present and im- 
mediately preceding centuries, would carry 
us beyond our limits. We shall, therefore, 
here dose this hasty sketch of surgical his- 
tory, and proceed to discuss the subject of 
the present article. 
Of Wounds. Their kind, degree, and 
treatment. 
It ought to be the surgeon’s endeavour to 
familiarize himself with those circumstances 
which immediately indicate the mortality of 
a wound ; and this aptitude of discrimination 
is more especially requisite in the practice of 
the army or navy, where a speedy and irre- 
vocable decision is frequently called for. 
The mortality of wounds is, indeed, often 
evident to the most superficial and ufiini- 
tiated observer ; but this is by no means in- 
variably the case: and there are many in- 
stances, in which a prompt and accurate 
judgment respecting their consequences, im- 
mediate and remote, can only be formed 
by habits of reflective observation, grounded 
on a thorough knowledge of the anatomy, 
and a general acquaintance with the functions, 
of the body. 
Wounds’ which penetrate the cavity of the 
heart ; those which cut off the communication 
of vital organs with the brain, as injuries done 
to the medulla oblongata, or spinal marrow ; 
of the small vessels which circulate within 
the brain ; of the nerves supplying the heart; 
of the great receptacle of the chyle, or those 
which interrupt the course of this fluid to the 
blood-vessels, such as wounds of the larger 
lacteals, Ac. may easily be admitted to rank 
with very little exception among mortal 
wounds; such are from their nature irre- 
mediable ; others, however, although alinost 
as surely fatal if neglected, may, by speedy 
and appropriate application, be often reme- 
died ; such as wounds of any of the larger 
blood-vessels, which are situated externally. 
But it is principally as it relates to wounds 
of the two great cavities of the chest and 
belly, that a speedy decision of their nature 
and tendency requires a knowledge of the 
