40 
AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON SURGERY. 
tion is not likely to turn out satisfactory, or, indeed, may be truly 
hazardous, and most unwisely or improperly undertaken. If the 
lungs or liver were, e. g., to be diseased, though the disease may 
not amount to much in itself, yet such sympathies occur under the 
operation that the patient seldom goes on well. A quality you 
should also acquire is that of gentleness : don’t pull parts about 
rudely or violently — they will not bear it. Whenever, in fine, 
you are going to perform an operation, always make the case your 
own : place yourself in the patient’s situation, and him or her in 
your’s, and act accordingly. 
The STUDIES of a person about to educate himself as a surgeon 
should consist, first and foremost, of anatomy. From it arise two 
eminent advantages — it teaches you to perform operations with 
expertness; but the main thing it teaches you is the detection 
and discrimination of disease. The reason why one surgeon is 
skilful, another not, is owing to this knowledge of discriminat- 
ing disease, not on account of devising or applying remedies: when 
the disease is once ascertained, they are soon discovered. The 
anatomical subjects calling for your especial attention are the bones 
and muscles : every process of bone must be well known, not 
merely by sight, but by feel in the dark ; for then you are likely 
to recognize them by the feel in the living body. The joints, like- 
wise, on account of dislocations and of disease attacking them, 
should be attentively studied. Of the muscles you want but to 
know few well ; the abdominal , by reason of hernia, you should 
carefully dissect. Also, you should take care to learn perfectly 
the course of the large muscles of the limbs, and especially such 
as mark the course of arteries. You should be as familiar with 
the arteries as with your alphabet : the larger nerves you must 
dissect also. The organs of sense must likewise be known ; in 
particular the eye. The male organs of generation are of great 
importance, as concerned in hernia, strictures, diseases of the testi - 
cles, &c. With respect to the viscera and brain, and nerves in 
general, a knowledge of them is of more consequence to the phy- 
sician than the surgeon. Don’t hurry through your dissections. 
If a man would learn anatomy, he must sit down to one part, and 
learn that thoroughly. Don’t think of acquiring anatomy from 
demonstrations alone : dissect for yourselves ; demonstrations will 
furnish you with general ideas, — but you are not to be calculating 
anatomists. 
Physiology you must learn, because it teaches you the healthy 
functions of parts, and these must be known before the disordered 
ones can be recognized or appreciated. Moreover, I think a man 
ought to understand medicine to make a good surgeon. As local 
disease often produces constitutional disorder, and vice versa, so 
