Observations on the cultivation of organic science, being the Hunterian oration delivered February 14, 1848. Before the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by Richard Dugard Grainger.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the cultivation of organic science, being the Hunterian oration delivered February 14, 1848. Before the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by Richard Dugard Grainger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    yet one saw it effecting the details of the nicest piece of autoplasty with extreme neatness. He had a strong mechanical turn, fond of instruments, as instruments, and very successful in changing them for the better. His great object was to simplify everything—instru- ments most especially—being convinced that the degree of their simplicity was the degree of their perfection. He had great courage, and at the same time great self- command i7i arduis. Trifles put him out of humour, espe- cially in ordinary life; but grave accidents and untoward happenings, when professionally occupied, calmed him the more; like certain generals, martinets going into action, but cool, polite, and considerate the moment that shot and shell come thick around them. He had his feelings under tight command; a circumstance, however, which in no degree implied their absence. I have seen him rush from the operating theatre, and weep and sob like a child, after a great operation (lithotomy) wliich he had to complete for another surgeon ; but, until the operation was over, there was no sign of softness. At his father's grave he showed much emotion. He had great self-reliance, for, feeling and knowing his powers, he never doubted them, and they, in turn, never deserted him. He had also great self-resource. In diflBculties he had an admirable instinctive tact in extricating himself. Obstructed by some unforeseen event, in the middle of an operation, for example, he did not stop to think, or talk, or consult, but on the instant the thing was done necessary to overcome and meet the obstruction; and, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, after-reflection would only assure the on- lookers it was the best move that was made on the spur of the moment—that nothing else would have done so well. He had great powers of diagnosis; a touch and a
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