Tl ISTORIO A I, S K KTl' [I '---* tA- SURGERY, 3. ■JA. •<1 \\ FROM THE KHVIVAL OF LITERATURE, TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Being an Introductory Lecture to a Course on Surgery IN (iENEVA MEDICAL COLLEGE, N. Y • (»h, Time ! theHeautifier'of the dead, .\dorner of the ruin; comforter . \y<* And only healer when the heart hath Med-^V -V Time! the corrector where our judgments eV\ ,t\ „ The test of truth, love.—sole philosopher, V ' X _~- I'or all beside are sophists, ft n thy thrift, Which never loses though it doth defer— I'ime, the avenger 1 unto thee 1 lift Mv hnnds, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift. ' ' ' [Chiidb Harold. U Y J \ MES BRYA5, M. I) (JJKNEVA: r LliVF fAND AND LOOK, PRINTERS. is.-il. HISTORICAL SKETCH S U E G E R Y, FROM THE REVIVAL OF LITERATURE, TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, Being an Introductory Lecture to a Course on Surgery, IN GENEVA MEDICAL COLLEGE " Oh, Time ! the beautifler of the dead, Adorner of the ruin ; comforter And only healer when the heart hath bled— Time ! the corrector where our judgments eiT, The test of truth love.—sole philosopher, For all beside are sophists, from thv thrift. Which never loses though it doth defer— Time, the avenger I unto thee 1 lift My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift." [Childb Harold. BY JAMES BRYAN, M. D GENEVA: CLEVELAND AND LOOK, PRINTERS. 1851. rCOBRESPONDENCE. Geneva, May 31st, 1851. Prop. James Bryan:— . Dear Sir,— At a meeting of the Medical Class, held this day, E. A. Knapp was called to the Chair, J. W. Black, Secretary. The undersigned were appointed a Committee, to request a copy of your able introductory address, for publication. Believing that it would not only be instructive to the Class, but grati- fying to the profession generally, we respecfully submit th» request. Very truly yours, B. T. KNEELAND, D. SCOTT PARTRIDGE, HORACE C. AVERY, S. E. SHATTUCK, JAMES N. MOTT, Committee. To Messrs. Kneeland, Partridge, Avery, and al.— Gentlemen,— Your note of the 31st ult. is before me. I feel myself highly flattered by the request of the Class, communicated through you, for a copy of my Introductory Address " for publication." Please to accept for yourselves individually, Committee and Class, my sincere regards, and with them the manuscript of my Lecture. Very respectfully and truly yours, JAMES BRYAN. Geneva Hotel, June 2d, 1851. ADDRESS. " The period of the revival of letters in Christendom, (remarks the learned Dr. Good,) is in many respects one of the most brilliant eras in human history. Without the intervention of a miracle we behold a flood of noonday bursting all at once over every quarter of the horizon, and dis- sipating the darkness of a thousand years ; we behold mankind in almost every quarter of Europe, from the Carpathian mountains, to the Pillars of Hercules, from the Tiber to the Vistula, waking as from a profound sleep to a life of activity and bold adventure ; ignorance falling prostrate be- fore advancing knowledge ; brutality and barbarism giving way to science and polite letters; vice and anarchy to order and moral conduct; and idolatry, hypocrisy and superstition to the pure simplicity of Christian truth."—"Book of Nature," Lecture XIII. We need not here dwell upon the great inventions and discoveries that characterize this period—suffice it to say, that copper engraving, printing with mova- ble types, the mariner's compass, with the discov- ery of the American Continent, and the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, were among the wonders of the time. The literature of the Greeks which had been buried, first in the earth, then in the rubbish of Arabian Commentators, was dug up and subjected to close scrutiny and accurate study. The ancient re- cords were restored to their Original purity, and by means of the press, distributed over all Europe. The priesthood led in the march of improvement, as far at least as literature was concerned; and medicine, which had returned to the cloister and the temple, was again " brought out," and introduced to the world, to stand or fall upon her own merits. Hippocrates had 6 in earlur times divorced her from divinity; but the darkness of the middle ages presented to her then ju- venile mind too great a temptation, and she fell back again into the open arms of the priesthood. The first step towards her second divorce, was made in 116:>, bv the celebrated council of Tours ; which prohibited* the clergy from undertaking any bloody operations. About this period flourished Brunus, an Italian physician and surgeon of considerable eminence, born in Calabria, and said to have been intimate with Pe- trarch. He published at Padua in the year 1252, a collection of surgery, more copious than any which preceded it. (Hamilton's History, vol. 1, page 358.) Willis of Salicetum, is said to have been a writer of original thought; in the language of Guido de Chaulia- co, a " powerful man," in medicine and surgery. He was professor at Verona, and died about 1280, accor- ding to Lindanus. His minute description of surgi- cal operations, particularly those for stone, prove him to have been practically acquainted with surgery. He is said to have been the first modern to describe the disease called Crusta Lactea, and the best mode of cu- ring it. He very judiciously cautions us against too rashly opening deep-seated tumors, with the idea that they contain pus, lest we make an incision into an aneurism instead of an abscess. His remarks on Sar- cocele, and other diseases of the testicle, are in many points equal to those of the celebrated Pott, who flour- ished five centuries after him. Lanfranc, who was one of the most distinguished surgeons of the laHer half of the thirteenth century, prosecuted his studies both in Leyden and Paris. His works, though voluminous, are chiefly copied from Gulielmus de Salicetum. He was a surgeon who, as far as possible, discouraged the use of the knife, the caus- tic, and other violent measures, depending in a great measure upon the use of medicines. No operation, he sjys, should be performed for the stone, because r he had found a mode of curing it without operation. So of the trephine and operations for strangulated her- nia, all of which he condemns. In the latter disease the knife and the cautery were the ordinary recources in his day. Guy de Chauliac, about the year 1363, is said to have reduced the art of surgery to a regular system, when he had himself attained to a very advanced age. Fallopius compares his writings to those of Hippo- crates, and speaks in the highest terms of Guy de Chauliac as the revivor of surgical and anatomical sci- ence. He was Professor at Montpelier, practiced many years at Avignon, being physician to Pope Clement VI. Besides giving a very useful catalogue of the surgeons who had flourished previous to his day, he accompanied the works of each with judicious criti- cisms indicative of his estimation of the value of these works. He also gives us an account of the different sects or classes of surgeons of his day, of which he says there were five. The first was led by Roger Roland, and the four masters; these applied cata- plasms indiscriminately to every species of wound and ulcers. Brunus and Theodoric were the leaders of the second class, who used only wine in similar cases. The third class, with William of Saliceto and Lanfranc at their head, adopted a kind of middle course be- tween these two, and treated wounds with emollient ointments and plasters. While the fourth sect, com- posed of the Germans, mostly military surgeons, used promiscuously oils, wool, potions and charms. The fifth class, composed principally of ignorant practicion- ers and silly women, resorted on all occasions to the saints, praised each others writings continually, and followed each other, in the language of Hamilton, in one undeviating track, like Cranes. In the works of Guy de Chauliac will be found ac- counts of inguinal and intestinal hernia, the Caesarean operation, amputation, the plague of 1358, which 8 depopulated the whole world in a most unpreceden- ted manner. Like the cholera in more modern times, this epidemic began in India, and is said to have car- ried off one fourth of the inhabitants of the entire globe. Guido himself, while residing in Avignon, was very near falling a victim to the disease, but was re- lieved by the formation of a suppurating bubo. The works of this distinguished surgeon are well worthy the examination of the medical literary scholar. The greatest English contemp >rary of Guy de Chauliac, was the celebrated John Arden, who was born about 1320. He practiced in Newark at the time the great epidemic called the plague, visited this town, in 1319. His reputation rapidly spread over the coun- try after this occurrence, and he, in 1370, removed to London, there to enjoy a wider field for his talents. He is said to have been a man of keen perceptions, indomitable industry, and strictly honorable in all his dealings. A large volume on medicine and surgery together with numerous manuscripts, are all that re- main of his works, few of which have ever been prin- ted. Ardem may with great propriety be considered the revivor of surgery in England, as Guy de Chauliac was on the continent. " He writes, (says Hamilton,) with an air of great simplicity ; and, although he blends a considerable proportion of quackery and su- perstition with his accounts, was deservedly regarded as one of the best surgeons of his day." He was re- markably successful in his treatment of fistula in ano, and enumerates the several modes of treatment in de- tail ; not only those in common use, but others inven- ted by himself. He has written largely on the nature, uses and modes of administering enemata, which seems to have been quite a new mode of surgical prac- tice in his day. lie avers that the exhibition of an enema requires great care and dexterity, and that he had been very successful in relieving and curing many cases of cholic, intestinal obstructions, &c, &c, gain- g ing by the operation " both wealth and reputation in places the most widely apart." " It is to this epoch that the true separation of medi- cine from surgery must be referred. The latter was abandoned to the laity, the generality of whom, in those ages of barbarism were entirely destitute of ed- ucation. The priests, however, still retained that por- tion of the art which abstained from the effusion of blood. Roger Rolandus, Bruno, Guilielmus de Salice- tum, Lanfranc, Gordon, and Guy de Chauliac, confined themselves to commentaries on the Arabians ; and if the latter author be excepted, they all disgraced sur- gery by reducing it nearly to the mere business of ap- plying ointments and plasters. Guy de Chauliac, however, the last of the Arabians, is to be honorably excluded from such animadversion. His work, writ- ten at Avignon, in 1363, in the pontificate of Urban the fifth, to whom he was physician, continued to be, for a long while, the only classical book in the schools. It may be observed, that as he imitated in every re- spect the other Arabian physicians, and like them, thought that it did not become a priest to deviate from the austerity of his profession, he has passed over in silence the diseases of women."—(Cooper's Surge- ry.) From this period up to that of Pope Leo X., or the beginning of the sixteenth century, (Pope Leo hav- ing reigned from 1513 to 1521,) we have few distin- guished names in our profession. The school at Sal- ernum, although founded about the middle of the seventh century, produced no names of note until sev- eral centuries after. This was almost the only school of medicine in Eu- rope up to the 12th century, and attained, for the time in which it flourished, a very great reputation. It was established in a monastery of Benedictine Monks, and became so famous that several crowned heads are said to have visited it for medical advice. The great patron of the school in its palmy days was Frederick 10 II, Ejnperor of the west, who was himself a man of profound learning. In the year 1225 he laid down the following statutes for the school. The number of Professors should be ten, whose seniority was regula- ted by the dates of their appointments. The exami- nation for degrees was conducted with the greatest strictness, and the works in which the candidates were examined as to their proficiency in their studies, were the Therapeutics of Galen, the beginning of the first canon of Avicenna, or the Aphorisms of Hippo- crates. Candidates for the degree of Doctor in Medi- cine, were required to have attained the age of twen- ty-one, and to produce testimonials of having studied medicine under competent Professors during the space of seven years. For admission among the body of Surgeons, it was necessary to have devoted twelve months at least to anatomical pursuits. The candi- date was required to take, on being admitted, an oath of conformity with the laws and usages of the college, to refuse all fees or remuneration for attendance on the poor, and not to enter into any lucrative compact with a druggist or apothecary. Having sworn faithfully to observe all these regulations, a book was placed in his hand, a ring upon his finger, and a laurel crown upon his head, and he was then dismissed with a kiss of Peace."—-Hamilton's History of Medicine, Vol. 1, page 327, London lfS3l. The truth is the dark ages produced absolutely nothing for medicine. The practice was divided be- tween the Priest and the Barber; the latter perform- ing the manual part, and the former performing at once the functions of priest and physician. The uni- versal ignorance of the people, with the theoretical or speculative character of the education given to the better classes, unfitted both for the prosecution of sci- ence on the only true method, that of observation and induction. The ipse dixit of Galen and Aristotle in medicine and philosophy was the end of controversy. From this point heresy began ; and men were subjec- 11 ted to the contempt and derision of their fellows, for merely pretending to advance ideas not found in these authorities. Religion was in the same predicament; and it was not until the period above indicated, that men had courage enough to throw off the incubus which weighed down their nobler natures. As Surgery must ever be based upon Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology, and can never go beyond the boundaries set by these branches of science, so the progress of these must be studied in order to ap- preciate both the history and advancement of Surgery. The first great name which meets the historian's eye and pen, devoted to anatomical pursuits in the sixteenth century is that of Vesalius. This author is considered by all writers as the founder of modern anatomical science. Previous to him, the name of Galen was the only one quoted. Vesalius proved be- yond question that the anatomy taught by Galen was defective and very imperfect. Indeed, strong doubts are entertained whether Galen ever actually dissected the human subject. It is supposed that he obtained his practical information from the dissection of apes. " Descended from a family which had abounded with physicians," Vesalius enjoyed peculiar privileges and opportunities for the acquisition of his profession. His great-grandfather, John, was physician to Mary of Burgundy, first wife of Maximilian I., and went and settled at Louvain when he was old. Everard, his grandfather, wrote commentaries upon the books of Rhases, and upon the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. His father, Andreas, was apothecary to the Emperor Charles V. Vesalius himself was born in Brussels, in 1512, or 1514. He was instructed in the langua- ges and philosophy at Louvain, where he early evinced his preference for anatomical and similar stu- dies, by dissecting rats, moles, dogs and cats. After leaving Louvain he went to Paris and studied medicine under Silvius, the celebrated anatomist, whose name is still connected with the structure of 12 the brain. With this celebrated master he studied anatomy with great diligence, this study being at that time very little prosecuted. Indeed, dissecting had long been discontinued, as an unlawful and impious practice. The Emperor Charles V., held a consulta- tion of divines at Salamanca, " to know whether, in good conscience, a human body might be dissected, for the sake of comprehending its structure. It is a curi- ous fact, but one 1 believe well authenticated, that Vesalius wrote his celebrated work on anatomy, (" De humani Corporis Fabrica,") at the early age of eight- een years. So soon had he become a proficient in the science of which he was henceforth denominated the "Father." After this, he returned to Louvain and commenced teaching anatomy, whence he travelled in- to Italy, and read lectures and made anatominal de- monstrations at Pisa, Bologna, and several other cities. In 1539 he was made, by the republic of Venice. Professor of Anatomy in the University of Padua, where he taught his branch during seven vears. He was afterwards made physician, first to Charles V., and afterwards to Phillip II. of Spain, in whose courts he obtained a prodigious reputation for skill and saga- city in his profession. He is said to have predicted the death of a nobleman so accurately as to have sta- ted not only the day, but the hour of its occurrence. The nobleman, it is said, impressed with the great re- putation of Vesalius, believed him implicitly, made a feast, invited his friends, gave them presents, and died at the time predicted. Whether this story be true or not, it shows the great reputation of the man who should be the subject of such tales. His skill in anat- omy was equal to his medical reputation. Thnanus relates of him, that being in Paris, he undertook to mention the name of any bone that might be placed in his hand, however small, with his eyes bound up. A skeleton prepared by his own hands, and presented to the University at Basil, was still there in 1799. In reference to his death there is much doubt, which my 13 distinguished friend, Professor Gibson, of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, has been quite unable to dispel, although the pretty story that he picked up in Eu- rope, in 1847, about the murder of a suiter of his wife, the shipwreck and his final retirement to a monaste- ry, there to repent of his sins, is very romantic and withal amusing. That he visited the holy land on a pilgrimage of some kind, as was common in those days, is well authenticated ; that he opened a Span- ish nobleman, and found the heart still beating, for which act the inquisition sentenced him to death, but commuted the sentence at the intercession of his friend, King Phillip, to a pilgrimage, is very generally be- lieved ; but whether in the shipwreck which he is said to have suffered, (on his return to Venice, to fill the chair vacated by the death of Fallopius,) he was thrown upon the Island of Zante, " and there," in lan- guage of Hutchinson, " perished miserably, dying of hunger and cold," or returned privately to Venice and retired to a monastery, is not known. Thus gloriously, for our profession, began the six- teenth century, whose history alone, if properly writ- ten, would require volumes. The next individual we shall notice, was born about the same time as Vesalius, or in 1509. Am- brose Pare was a Hugernot, and one of the earliest converts to protestanism. The Genius exhibited by the father of Modern Anatomy, was equaled by him who with great propriety has been denominated the father of Surgery. The independent spirit of the age, was fully developed in the distinguished Surgeon un- der consideration; and though connected officially with one of the most unrelenting despots and blood- stained monarchs of any age, yet he retained not only his freedom of conscience as a man, and a Christian, but his life was preserved by the King himself, at a time when thousands were murdered in cold blood for their religious opinions. " Surgeon to King Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, 14 and Henry III, of France, Pare practiced his profes- sion iii various places, followed the French armies in- to Italy, and acquired such esteem, that his mere presence in a beseiged town was enough to reani- mate the troops employed for its defence." Pare is said to have invented or revived the use of the ligature. To Celsus is due doubtless the credit of recommending when the other ordinary means fail, the ligature. These means were styptics, caustic and pressure. The invention of gun powder prior to the age of Pare, with the consequent use of fire arms in war, during his military career, gave him ample op- portunity to study gun-shot wounds. He indeed may be said to be the chief authority on this subject until we arrive at the period when John Hunter, lived and wrote upon it. Amputations, which were treated by Pares predecessors by placing pitch plasters very tightly around the limb, and causing it to slough off at a joint, were performed with the knife and saw. The ligature was thus of the first importance, in arresting hemorrhage. It is said however that the jealously and unrelenting hostility of his contemporaries were such, as to cause him to hunt up authority from Ga- len and others for the use of the ligature. " He was the first to use the twisted suture in hare- lip, and similar wounds, copying the mode of applica- tion from the manner in which the ladies and tailors of the day wound the thread around the needle, and thus carried both safely in their cuffs or caps." (Mil- ler.) His works after his death, exerted a very great influence upon the surgery of the day. His immedi- ate successor Pigrain is said not to have been his equal, and attempting to follow in his footsteps, even obscured the writings of Pare by his commentaries. Pare's fame however continued to increase, and age after age did that justice to his great abilities which the envious of his own times churlishly refused to accede to them. His works were first published in 1535, and afterwards more fully in 1582. 15 Dionis, Belloste, Saviard, Morel and a few others were the surgeons in France during the seventeenth century. Of these Dionis is the most distinguished, not only in surgery, but obstetricy. In Germany we find the names of Hildanus, a most successful practitioner, and author of a surgical treatise, dated 1641: Scul- tetus, author of the works, called the Armamentarium Chirurgicum, 1653; and Purnam who was fond of using various instruments figured by Scultetus. He- ister who was a professor in the University of Helm- staadt, wrote a work on surgery, which is still in great repute, having been translated into all the modern lan- guages of Europe. John Lewis Petit, whose name is so frequently quo- ted in surgical works, was born in Paris, on the 13th of March, 1674. A vivacity and acuteness of observa- tion, uncommon at his period of life, were prominent characteristics in young Petit. A gentleman by the name of Littre, a celebrated anatomist who had apart- ments in the same house with the parents of Petit; conceived for the son of his friend a real affection, which induced him to take considerable interest in the child. The latter would frequently visit the dis- secting room of Mr. Littre, and observe his mode of preparing the subjects for his lectures. " He was one day found in a granary, making the object of one of Mr. Littre's profound researches that of his amuse- ment. He had privately conveyed away a rabbit, and thinking himself in no danger of being surprised, cut it up, with a view of imitating what he had seen performed. The young Petit had scarcely attained his seventh year, when he assisted regularly at the lectures of Mr. Littre." In less than two years, he was intrusted with the preparation of the ordinary dissections and afterwards had the whole care of the anatomical theatre. At the age of 16 years he was placed under the care of M. Castel a celebrated Sur- geon, to study Surgery. He remained with him two years in order to obtain the title of pupil, which ad- 2 16 mitted him to medical lectures in the colleges. His whole time after this was taken up with the study of his profession—attending the public courses of lec- tures— walking the hospitals, and studying in the dis- secting room. " In 1582 he was employed to examine the state of the Military Hospitals of the Marshal de Luxemburg, who formed the seige of \amur, under Louis the fourteenth. He made this and the following camp- paiuns, taking advantage of every opportunity to im- prove hi nisei f whilst he instructed others. He em- ployed himself during the summer, in making demon- strations on the bones ; as soon as the season permit- ted the use of bodies, he gave regular courses of lec- tures on anatomy. The voluntary labors he impo- sed on himself, his assiduity in the discharge of his duties, and a regular conduct which is soon taken no- tice of in armies, fixed on him the eyes of his superi- ors. At their recommendation, the magistrates of Lisle, granted him the use of a hall in the town-house, where he publicly demonstrated anatomy, during the winter of 1693. The following winter he did the same at Mons, and Cambray with the same protec- tion of the magistrates." In 1697 Petit was made Surgeon Assistant Major to the hospital of Tournay. He returned to Paris in 1696, and underwent the customary examination and was admitted Master in Surgery on the 27th of May, 1700. For many years Petit delivered courses of lectures on Anatomy and Surgery in his own house, at which many of the most distinguished Physcians of Europe attended. These lectures ceased only when his other avocations had so increased as to make it impossible to continue his private lectures. He also lectured in the Colleges of Medicine for many years on his favor- ite subjects, Anatomy and Surgery. His reputation became so well established that very advantageous offers were made to him by several of the crowned 17 heads of Europe to remove to their kingdoms; among others, Ferdinand of Spain offered to himself and family permanent endowments, if he would remove there. He was however so attached to his native land, that no inducement was sufficient to cause him to leave it. He was connected with most of the learned and scientific societies of Europe. In 1736, he published a very interesting memoir on aneurisms. In 1734 he printed a memoir on the nature and treatment of fistula lachrymalis. He also, as is well known invented the Tourniquet in ordinary use. He published a judicious memoir on the frae- num of the tongue, which was the fashion in those days, it seems to cut, not only too frequently, but to too great an extent, endangering the life of the child, by inducing so great a relaxation of this onran as to al- low it to fall back into the throat, and choke him. His work on diseases of the bones is still admired among surgeons. In 1731, the king of France named him director of the Royal Academy of Surgery, and subsequently he was made Provost. A post which he held until near the period of his death ; which occurred on the 17th of April, 1750, at the ripe age of seventy-seven years. On account of some rules connected with the pro- fession, which demanded that applicants for Medical offices should be acquainted with the ancient langua- ges, it is said that he studied the Latin language at 50 years of age. As we learn was the case with one of the Catos in reference to the Greek language. It also shows us that the imperfect opportunities of gain- in"- a literary education, of his youth, were not sur- mounted until a late period in life. We would add in reference to this subject, that not only Petit but John Hunter and many other distinguished Surgeons have successfully cultivated the science and art of our pro- fession, without a classical education; and have en- roled their names on the highest pinnacles of fame; nevertheless, all will acknowledge that any modern 18 student who neglects this branch of his educa- tion, labors under disadvantages which will last as lono- as he lives. John Hunter thanked God that he had not studied Latin, obtained the degree of M D., and become a gentleman ; for, said he, I should have been always occupied with the frivolous business of riding about, and otherwise wasting my time. Yet John Hunter loses much of his well earned reputa- tion, for the want of good language in which to ex- press his novel and original ideas. For it must be remembered that all science coins its new words, to express its advancement, from the ancient languages ; which are to us what the ancient language of the Priests of Egypt, were to the generations which fol- lowed. We proceed to speak of some of the discoveries, anatomical and other, which took place during this century, together with short notices of the discoverers. The first great discovery which we will notice, is that of thelacteals, made by GaspardAselli or Asellius, a native of Cremona, who was a distinguished pro- fessor in Paris. Aselli made this discovery, which was an important prelude to that of the circulation of the blood, in the year 1622. It occurred on open- ing a dog, shortly after a meal, when he saw the lac- teals filled with the peculiar white fluid denominated chyle. This had been newly absorbed from the in- ternal surfaces of the intestines. He was mistaken, however, as to their course, and described them as passing from the intestines to the liver, thus confound- ing them with the lymphatics of that organ. It is very true, and Aselli admits the fact, that the lymphatics had been mentioned by the ancients, but their state- ments were very vauge, and no modern anatomists having anticipated him in their discovery, he may with propriety be entitled to that credit. Caspar Hoffman, it is said did not believe in their existence, and Harvey thought they were only lymph-bearing vessels. Aselli also mistook the mesenteric glands for 19 the pancreas, and announced them as a new discovery, which complicated the matter still more. This sub- ject was made clear about a quarter of a century la- ter by the discovery or rediscovery of the Thoracic duct by Nicolas Pequet, together with its connection with the lacteals. Aselli supposed that the lacteals termi- nated in the liver, but Pequet after whose name the duct has since been designated, first fairly and clear- ly proved the connection of the lacteals with it, and its connection with the heart. Eustachius, it is true, had nearly a century before, (1563,) discovered the thoracic duct, but he did not understand its nature or importance. So that al- though the praise of having known the existence of the thoracic duct must be indisputably given to Eus- tachius, as that of having noticed the valves of the veins belongs to Fabricius ; the still greater praise of supplying that link without which the remaining por- tions of the chain were useless, and connecting the discovery of Asellius with that of Harvey, by demon- strating the functions of the thoracic duct, belongs as exclusively and indisputably to Pecquet, as the com- pletion of the deficient link, which neither Servetus nor Columbus, Caesalpinus nor Fabricius, had been able to accomplish, was the work of the immortal Harvey. The question as to the identity of the lac- teals and the lymphatics was not decided until the days of the Hunters. Six years after the discovery of the lacteals, Harvey announced in 1628, in a work on the subject, the discovery of the circulation of the blood. The whole matter was subjected to the rigid tests of experiment, and induction. So simple and so plain are his demonstrations, that it is impossible to resist the admission of the grand conclusion. It is a curious fact, however, that Plato in his Tinurus seems actually to have announced this important fact centu- ries before the time of Harvey. His words as quoted by Hamilton are as follows: " But they (the Gods,) established the heart, which is both the fountain of 20 the veins and the blood, which is vehemently impelled through all the members of the body in a circular pro- gression." Plato was learned in the mysteries and science of the Egyptians. Can it be that this knowl- edge was once possessed, and, as has been the case with many other things, lost to mankind, until the distinguished Englishman rediscovered it? My friend, Dr. Samuel George Morton, who is the author of a work on anatomy^ sent me this or a similar quotation from the Timtvus of Plato, while I was writing an in- troductory lecture last year. The capsule of Glisson was first accurately described by Dr. Francis Glisson, Professor of Physic at Cambridge, in 1654. It had been seen by Pecquet and Walaeus before, but Glis- son first described it with accuracy. Thomas Wharton published a work in 1656, enti- tled Adnograpkia, in which he (escribes the excreto- ry duct of the parotid gland, and hence, by some de- nominated the duct of Wharton. To Nicholas Steno, who was a Dane, however, is due the credit of first discovering this duct. In 1657, Nathaniel Highmore published a work on anatomy, and described what Casscrius some time before him had denominated the Antrum Goiue, which has since, by English Anato- mists and others, been called the Antrum fiiglimoria- num. The cortical portion.of the brain was first proved to be glandular, by MLalpighi, and, indeed the ulti- mate structure of many of the glands and other or- gans, was, perhaps, as fully demonstrated by this cel- ebrated anatomist and microscopical observer, as it has by any of the many who have followed him in this path of investigation. The injected preparations of Malpighi. fragments of which may yet be seen in some of the Museums of Europe, were equalled or ex- celled only by those of that distinguished anatomist, Frederick Ruysch. So perfect were the injections of Ruysch, that the subject retained all the freshness and pliancy of youth and health. He published his trea- 21 tise on the lacteals and lymphatics in 1665. His mu- seum is said to have been the most magnificent ever possessed by a private individual. " Among the parts that he examined with the greatest minuteness, was the pulmonary circulation, (in which he clained the discovery of the bronchial artery,) the structure of the brain, of the ear, and of the lymphatic and glandular system. In 1685, Ruysch was appointed Professor of Physic, which appointment he retained with honor and reputation till 1728, when he had the misfortune to fracture his thigh by a fall. He also held the office of superintendent of midwives, in which capacity he introduced many beneficial regulations, and many im- provements in that department, especially the aboli- tion of the practice of speedily extracting the placenta, which he believed to be expelled by means of an or- bicular muscle, at the fundus uteri. His publications. which were numerous, were chiefly anatomical, and many of them controversial. He enjoyed good health till he had attained his ninety-third year, when a fe- ver closed his labors in 1731." Henry Meibomius, who was bornatLubec, in June, 1630, educated in the University of Angers, and wrote several valuable anatomical and other medical works, published in 1666, a letter to Langcelot, " de vasispal- peprarum novis" in which he describes some vessels of the eye-lids which he had recently discovered. Por- tions of the eye-lids, particularly small follicles on their margins, still retain his name. In 1669, Borelli published an important work upon the eye, and in the following year, the beginning of his great physiological work, " De motu Animalium," which was not entirely published until after his death. In this work he attempted to explain all the animal functions and motions upon mechanical principles, and may hence, inasmuch as his views were defended for many years after his death, be considered as the founder of the mechanical philosophy in medicine. He supposed the muscular fibres to be vescicular, and 22 that by the swelling of these veseicles. consequent to the introduction of the nerve fluid, which fermented with the blood, the muscular fibres shortened, and produced as a consequence, muscular contraction. He measured the collective force of a muscle by mul- tiplying that of the individual fibres. The power of the heart, in the act of propelling the blood, is, accor- ding to him, one hundred and eighty thousand pounds. These calculations have, however, nearly all of them, been disproved, and are now entirely obsolete. Regnier De Graaf, the discoverer or first describer of the ovarian vesicles, was the son of an architect, residing at Schoonhove, in Holland, lie was born July 30th, 1641, and studied at Leyden and Angers. His first dissertation was on the pancreated juice, and gained him great reputation, having been written at the age of twenty-two years. A few years afterwards he published three dissertations, on the organs of gen- eration in both sexes, which involved him in a discus- sion with his old pupil, Swammerdam. He died in 1673, at the early age of thirty-two, having written several works which were published in 1677, and 1705, in Leyden, and much esteemed by the medical world. John Conrad Peyer, whose name is associated with certain glands in the intestines, was a native of Schaff- hausen, and published a work called, " Exercitatio Anatomico Medica de Glandulis Intestinorum," in 1677. William Covvper, an eminent surgeon of London, first published a large anatomical work in 1694, in which he described two new glands in the urethra, which have been named after him—Coii-jht's Mucous Glands. He also first gave a representation of the Thoracic duct, as it is found in the human subject, preceding anatomists having drawn their descriptions from the dissection of animals. In this century flourished in Italy the renowned Tagliacotius or Tagliacozzi, who practiced at Bologna 23 and several other cities. He became early distinguish- ed for his treatment of various mutilations which were then common. These mutilations were frequently the penalty, by law, of some offence or crime, and consist- ed in the excision of the nose, ears and other portions of the body. The common practice, also, at that time of fighting duels with swords, produced a large num- ber of mutilations. Taking advantage of the facility of uniting parts by the firtrt intention, Teliacotius was enabled to cure these deformities, by re-applying the excised parts or transferring tissues from other parts to the seat of mutilation. He, it is said, even took pieces from the bodies of other persons, particularly slaves, and transplanted them. His reputation be- came very great in this practice, and he is frequently referred to by writers of his day and since. Butler, in his lludibras, has noticed the practice, but in a way to preclude my quoting the lines. This branch of Surgery has been revived during the present century, and is denominated Plastic Surgery; and the operations called those of Anaplasty or Auto- plasty; from a^ros himself and $«sseiv to create. A statue of this distinguished Surgeon was erected in Bologna, in which he is represented in a standing posture, holding a nose in his right hand, emblematic of the peculiar talent which " distinguished him." Caesar Magnatus, was another distinguished Surgeon of this Century, who wrote largely on surgery and simplified very"much, the treatment of wounds.^ By reference to what has already been said, it will be seen that this was the great distinction, between the surgeons of this period; namely, their modes of treat- ing wounds and ulcers. The true principles of which were not demonstrated until the middle and latter part of the 18th century. 3/arcu-s Aureliu-t Sevcrimis, made himself a good reputation in Surgery and is frequently quoted by his successors. He was both a skilful and intrepid oper- 21 ator. In the latter part of the 16th and the begin- ning of the 17th centuries, the celebrated Fabricius al» Aqua-pendentc, lived and flourished in Padua. He is known to us not only as the preceptor of Harvey, but the author of many important Anatomical and Surgi- cal works. In the former, he has, according to my venerable friend Dr. Redman Cox, described many things in connection with the circulation which Har- vey has appropriated to himself, giving his old master no credit for them. He was the most eminent Surgeon and Anatomist of his time. His Surgical works, it is said, have passed through no less than seventeen edi- tions ; and show him to have been not only perfectly acquainted with the Surgery of his predecessors and cotemporaries ; but to have been an extensive improv- er of the art, himself. We are indebted to him for the modern trephine and for the tube introduced after tracheotony. In England for the same period we have the names of Wiseman who was the Pare, of that country, Wil- liam Clowes, who was a Military Surgeon and wrote on gun-shot wounds, Lowe a Scotchman, and author of a work on the art of Surgery, and James Young, who resided in Plymouth, and wrote in lf>79. Harvey has already been noticed. The true father of English Surgery, as Pare was the revivor of French, and Continental Surgery, was Wise- man. He was Serjeant-Surgeon to Charles II. and en- joyed a large practice during the whole period of tin civil wars. His surgical writings, consist of eight treat- ises—and are well worthy perusal, by the modern student. He advocated primary amputation, after gun- shot wounds, a practice the utility of which, the ample experience of Larrey in the French armies during the latter part of the last, and the beginning of the pres- ent Century, has fully confirmed. We thus close our account of the progress of Surge- ry with the end of the Seventeenth Century; and it 25 will be seen that the period under consideration was one full of interest to the Surgeon and Anatomist.— We learn from the consideration of the subject, first; how slowly, but yet how surely, our science has pro- gressed. That a good writer and expounder of the Science of his day, is valuable though he add nothing to the general stock of our information. He is useful because he keeps up that chain which is essential to the advancement of knowledge—and indeed no man can write or teach his profession without imparting to his instructions, more or less of the character of his own mind. New views are thus promulgated which re- acting upon other minds produced new and original thoughts, which tend to the elucidation of truths pre- viously imperfectly understood. Secondly. We should be encouraged to press on in our day and generation ; ever attempting to add our mite to the general store house. We should be en- couraged, with our present improved modes of inves- tigation, to labor to extend the boundaries of our art. All labor is said to be profitable. Thirdly gentlemen, and lastly. I congratulate you upon the advancement our noble art has made, and upon the prospect before you in making further ad- vances. This advancement is associated with wealth and honor. Most of the distinguished individuals whose names I have quoted to you, were the friends and coun- sellors of kings ; and the powerful of their own times. True I have not given you instances of great wealth attained through our profession, nor do I think it de- sirable so to do—though there are many instances on record of Physicians and Surgeons becoming wealthy ; yet I have named individuals whose fame was and is more durable than brass, or the gold of Golconda. So little importance is the acquisition of wealth that the historian of medicine seldom notices it. The truth is gentlemen, great wealth has ever been detrimental to the true interests of medicine. The stimulus of ne- 26 cessity appears to be absolutely necessary to the acqui- sition of fame and the amelioration of the condition of mankind, temporal or spiritual. Were it proper—I could name several instances where the sudden acquisi- tion of wealth has entirely destroyed and that for life, the usefulness of men of first-rate talent. Health, Peace and competence are the chief things to be desired by a physician—with these he may not only carve for himself a name on the annals of fame and thus live in future and remote ages, but when the stern messenger that comes to all, shall visit him, he will be able to approach his grave, like one "Who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, And lies down to pleasant dreams." NEW MEDICAL COLLEGE SIMIiAC SKSSION OF hoi. li The next aiuiual cuur.-e of lecture- in <;eneva Medical Com.ecje, will [! commence on the first Wednesday of March. IS.1:2.and continue lti weeks. I CHAKLKS BROlhlFAD COVENTRY. M. D.. i Professor of (Uistetrics and Medical Jurisprudence. 1 JAMES WEBSTER. M. !>.. i | Profssnr of . \,nUuniy and Physiology. 11 i| JAMES HADI.EN. M. I). Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy. CHARLES ALFRKD I.HI. M. D-. Prafessur of Mu2—Payable on taking out the Tickets- I >eiiioiisira- tors Tickets $5. Board from y L.5 ALFRF.K LEE. M. I). than. ■ , All bo'iiiPis communication* of the College tnuM hp addrr*soH to I'k.i Javfa Mad- 11 lev, Genera, V Y.