Every one will easily conceive, that this method of curing limbs that
are wounded, fractured and shattered by gun-shot, such as I have been
hitherto describing, is accompanied with a great deal of pain, and
with murmurs and impatience on the part of the sick; that it requires
a very judicious surgeon, and gives him abundance of trouble, care and
anxiety; besides, I do not pretend that every patient was saved by it:
The following lines are applicable on the occasion:
_Non est in medico semper relevetur ut æger,
Interdum docta plus valet arte malum._
But as they are oftener applicable with respect to amputation, the
expediency of the method I have recommended, stands nevertheless on a
solid foundation. To alleviate the pains and sooth the murmurs of the
sick, we must flatter them with hope; as for the wounds made by the
incisions, they are commonly necessary at a time when they do not
think of complaining or opposing them, and they are much less severe
than the horrible gash made by amputation. The objections arising
from the difficulty attending this method are happily removed in our
hospitals, by the care and humane vigilance which Frederick the Great
has exerted to provide his victorious armies with surgeons capable of
putting it in practice.