Page:The Hunterian Oration 1839.djvu/32

THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 25 terous proceedings adopted in the surgery of that day. Acuteness of observation and enthusiasm for surgery were in Mr. Pott conspicuously marked, yet to give full effect to these excellences, there wanted the influence on the treatment of disease afterwards derived from the principles of inflammation set forth by Mr. Hunter. To this cause may we ascribe the improvement of surgery in respect to another important subject, the management of injuries of the head from external violence. Mr. Pott’s works show the frequency with which the serious measure of perforating the skull was in his time practised from indications which, in the present day, we do not acknowledge, and accordingly with us, this operation is rare compared with the records of its performance half a century ago. As, by an improved knowledge of anatomy, the character of our operations for hernia has been changed, so has our better comprehension of the principles of inflammation improved our treatment before, and after the operation; and thus should I.speak of almost every other subject in surgical practice, in shewing, that by increase of anatomical knowledge, by a better acquaintance with the changes of structure which the parts of the body undergo from disease, and by a sounder view of the principles of treatment, the triumph of surgery in our age has been fairly gained,—the diminution in the number of operations; “the reflexion on the healing art,” as they are designated by Mr. Hunter, “for �