264 REVIEW ON THE STUDY OF SURGERY. 
manner that physiology will be found to be of use to the sur- 
geon ; the study of this branch of medical philosophy constitutes 
the best training that the mind of the young surgeon can un- 
dergo preparatory to his entering upon the more special duties 
of his calling. An acquaintance with the laws of physiology 
leads at once to a knowledge of the principles of surgery, to 
which there is but one step. It prevents, more effectually than 
any other course of study, that empiricism which springs from 
superficial knowledge, from an acquaintance with facts and de- 
tails, without a sufficient insight into those great laws by which 
they are linked together, and to the operation of which they are 
subservient. There are many cases of doubt and difficulty con- 
stantly occurring, in which, from the rarity of their occurrence, 
or the number of modifying circumstances by which they are 
surrounded, there may be an impossibility, from experience 
alone, in laying down a definite line of practice. "When a 
surgeon who merely trusts to his memory of facts and details, 
comes unexpectedly upon a difficulty such as this, through 
which his experience or memory affords no precedent to guide 
him, he is lost and embarrassed, knowing not how to escape ; 
but let him be versed in those laws that regulate the action of 
the body in health, and he will at once be able to seize the clue 
that will surely and safely guide him out of his entanglement.” 
In proof of the proposition, that the rapid march of physiology 
has been the first great and direct cause of the advance of sur- 
gery of late years, Mr. Erischen points to the fact, that the host 
of men who have raised surgery in England to its present high 
position, have all been pre-eminently distinguished for their 
physiological, as well as for their surgical investigations ; he 
directs attention to the discovery of the theory of inflammation 
and of the healing process, of the mode of repair of injuries, and 
the effects of the application of the ligature to bloodvessels, in 
testimony of the benefit conferred on the science of surgery by 
physiological inquirers. 
These propositions and arguments answer, in our mind, the 
inquiry, Is veterinary surgery, likewise, mainly indebted to 
physiology for its advance? Inasmuch as veterinary science 
must be regarded as the offspring of human medicine and sur- 
gery, it is obvious that whatever has tended to advance the 
latter must, pro tanto, have influenced the progress of the former; 
but, in addition to this, physiology has directly contributed to 
the advance of veterinary surgery. Whoever reflects dispas- 
