Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/6

2 honour those whose literary labours stand pre-eminent; or those who have exposed, or sacrificed their lives in the cause of their country, or in that of moral obligation? Is it not on account of their having evinced superior powers, or firmness of mind? They have thus done honour to the whole human race, and can only be repaid in the same coin; we return to them the tribute of honour, in proportion as they have conferred it on us. We indeed honour rank, but then it is either in blind obedience to the laws of custom, or because we associate the opinion of superior intelligence and elevation of mind with the possession of a dignified station.

Now, to show what surgery really is, it becomes necessary to divest it of that garb with which it has been clothed and obscured in times of ignorance; and it is useful to revert to the history of former times, in-order to observe the circumstances which have promoted or retarded the progress of the medical sciences, or communicated to