Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons ... February 14, 1817 (IA b22009358).pdf/44

36 was better qualified to, illustrate the nature and direct the treatment of those discases that come within the province of surgery than Pott; and although very few, if any, had the facility or the power of writing so well, yet, either from want of time or inclination, he has not given us that general and systematic view of the surgery of his time, for which he was so eminently qualified. He was, however, a most active and able inquirer after useful facts, and a most ardent supporter of the importance of his profession, which was uniformly manifested by the whole of his public and private conduct. Whenever the nature of any disease was generally misunderstood, or whenever he. had any important information to communicate, his habit was to give it immediate publicity through the medium of the �