Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons ... February 14, 1817 (IA b22009358).pdf/19

11 cum sit velustissima, majis tamen abillo parenti onmis medicine Hippocrate, quam a prioribus exculta est.” But the importance of correct anatomical knowledge not being yet sufficiently appreciated, the pathology continued to rest merely upon empirical observation. Their operations, therefore, were, happily, but few, were performed with timidity, on account of apprehended hemorrhage; and the actual cautery was in very frequent use.

In tracing the progress of any science, it is convenient, and it is instructive, to occasionally pause and reflect over what had been already accomplished; like an intelligent traveller, who haying arrived at some point of great elevation, stops, and deliberately surveys all those objects that are deemed worthy of attention, and notes down the principal �