Mr. Bernard, principal surgeon to king William, affirms respecting
ancient surgical skill as follows:--
There is no doubt but the perfection to which surgery has been carried
in these last ages, is principally owing to the discoveries which have
been made in anatomy. But the art of curing wounds, to which all the
other parts ought to give way, remains almost in the same state in which
the ancients transmitted it to us.
Celsus and other ancients have described a mode of operating for the
stone, although it must be owned that a method, deserving the preference
in many respects, and known by the name of _magnus apparatus_ or _the
grand operation_, was the invention of Johannes de Romanis, of Cremona,
who lived at Rome in the year 1520, and published his work at Venice in
1535. The instrument that we make use of in trepanning was doubtless
first used by the ancients, and only rendered more perfect by Woodall
and Fabricius. Tapping, likewise, is in all respects an invention of
theirs. Laryngotomy, or the opening of the larynx in the quinsey, was
practised by them with success; an operation which, though safe and
needful, is out of use at present. Galen, in particular, supported by
reason, experience, and the authority of Asclepiades, justly applauds it
as the ultimate resource in the case of a quinsey. _Hernia intestalis_,
with the distinguishing differences of the several species of that
malady, and their method of cure, are exactly described by the ancients.
They also cured the pterygion and cataract, and treated the maladies of
the eye as judiciously as modern oculists. The opening of an artery and
of the jugular vein is no more a modern invention, than the application
of the ligature in the case of an aneurism, which was not well
understood by Frederic Ruysch, the celebrated anatomist of Holland. The
extirpation of the amygdales, or of the uvula, is not at all a late
invention, though it must be owned the efficacious cauteries now used in
the case of the former, were neither practised nor known by the
ancients. The method we now use of treating the fistula lacrymalis, a
cure so nice and difficult, is precisely that of the ancients, with the
addition that Fabricius made of the cannula for applying the cautery. As
to the real caustic, which makes a considerable article in surgery,
although Costeus, Fienus, and Severinus have written amply on that
subject, yet it is evident from a single aphorism of Hippocrates, that
this great physician knew the use of it as well as those who have come
after him: and besides, it is frequently spoken of in the writings of
all the other ancients, who without doubt used it with great success in
many cases where we have left it off, or know not how to apply it. The
cure of the _varices_ by incision appears, from the works of Celsus and
Paulus Eginetus, to have been a familiar practice among the ancients.
The ancients describe the mode of curing the polypus of the ear, a
malady little understood by the moderns. They were likewise well
acquainted with all kind of fractures and luxations, and the means of
remedying them; as well as with all the sorts of sutures in use among
us, besides many we have lost. The various amputations of limbs,
breasts, &c. were performed among them as frequently and with as great
success as we can pretend to. As to the art of bandaging, the ancients
knew it so well, and to such a degree of perfection, that we have not
added any thing considerable to what Galen taught in his excellent tract
on that subject. As to remedies externally applied, we are indebted to
them for having instructed us in the nature and properties of those we
now use; and in general methods of cure, particularly of wounds of the
head, the moderns, who have written most judiciously upon it, thought
they could do no better service to posterity, than comment upon that
admirable book which Hippocrates wrote on this subject.