But lest I should be charged with being weakly influenced by the cries
of the patient, and with wanting that kind of fortitude which Celsus[5]
thinks requisite in a surgeon, in treating of this operation, I shall
take it for granted that the patients are men like those I have just
now mentioned, and that an inordinate desire of life, an uncommon
strength of mind, religion, and other moral reasons, induce them to
consider pain as nothing, when it affords them any hope of preserving
life.
It is foreign to my plan to inquire who was the first who attempted
this operation, or to trace the history of it in the works of the
ancients. I shall only take notice, that such wounded men as recovered,
after having lost a limb by some accident, without doubt, shewed the
possibility, and suggested the first hint of trying this operation.
Neither shall I dwell upon the various methods of performing it from
the infancy of the art to the present time; they are described in
other books[6], and I do not purpose giving a compleat treatise on
amputation. I shall not even touch upon what is already generally known
on this subject, but as little as I possibly can: This is the best way
of handling any particular point; and I hope all those who pay more
regard than I do to scholastic form, will pardon my inattention to
regularity of method and stile, when they are informed how much my time
is engaged; others will excuse me, when they call to mind the remark of
Celsus, that diseases are cured by proper remedies, not by a display of
eloquence.