[5] _Celsus de re medica_, l. 7. præf. Nevertheless Mr. Dionis, in
his course of operations, (_Demonstr. 2, Art. 9._) acknowleges, that
even the most intrepid surgeons tremble at the instant they are going
to perform this operation. Of all the operations, says he, that which
occasions the greatest horror, is the amputation of a thigh, a leg
or an arm. When a surgeon is about to take off a limb, and reflects
on the cruel means he must employ, he cannot help feeling a tremour,
and pitying the misfortune of the poor patient, who is under a fatal
necessity of being deprived, for life, of a part of his body. And in
another place he says, This operation ought rather to be performed by a
butcher than by a surgeon.
[6] Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1732. Art. 7.