Page:Restorative medicine - an Harveian annual oration delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on June 21, 1871 (the 210th anniversary) (IA restorativemedic00cham).pdf/30

16 RESTORATIVE MEDICINE. of the opening of that mythical box of evils, with which Horace has made us familiar. Yet here, too, there is a hopeful germ at the bottom. We have to deal with (let us say) an unhealthy, stag- nant ulcer: we strip out a bit of clean skin, not so big as a mustard-seed, from the patient or a friend, and we plant it among the torpid granulations; it sticks, it unites, it lives, it feels, and becomes with its new home one flesh not to be put asunder. John Hunter had taught us to expect this. But better still, it becomes a centre of new growth. Healthy skin begins to form round its edges. Praise be to the All-merciful! not only disease, but health also, is contagious. Better still, it is infectious it has stepped over the gulf of fester- ing stagnation, and is sowing growth along the neighboring margin, throwing out peninsulas and promontories to join the parent piece of grafted One who has experienced in his own per- son what uphill work cicatrization of a large sur- face is, must be pardoned some exultation at this surgical promise, and may be allowed an Utopian dream of restoration which would throw present success far into the shade. Even the practitioner upon others' ailments cannot but feel enthusiasm at skin.