Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/5



is the expressed intention of the founders of this oration, that it should be rendered contributory to the honour of surgery, and of its intelligent professors; which design cannot, in my opinion, be better accomplished, than by showing what surgery really is; the nature and extent of the knowledge requisite for its clear comprehension; the intellect and talent necessary for its successful practice.

Had surgery and surgeons been merely what their names imply, handy work and handicrafts, I never would have appeared before you, Gentlemen, to do them honour. For honour is due alone to intellect, and can be paid to nothing else. Why do we