Introductory lecture to a course of military surgery : delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1st May, 1850 / by Sir George Ballingall.

  • Ballingall, George, 1780-1855.
Date:
[1850]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to a course of military surgery : delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1st May, 1850 / by Sir George Ballingall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTORY LECTURE TO A | COURSE OF MILITARY SURGERY, Delivered in the University of Edinburgh, 1st May 185@. by SIR GEORGE B ALL IN GALL, M.D., RR.S.E., PROFESSOR OF MILITARY SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. __ [from the monthly journal of MEDICAL SCIENCE, JUNE 1850.] [{ Gentlemen,—It would be, in all respects, more agreeable to me to find my sell at d the conclusion, instead of the commencement, of my college duties, at this period 1 of the year; hut I have of late suffered so much from bronchitic attacks, that I if was quite unable to encounter the cold of an Edinburgh winter, and was glad o to seek shelter in the west of England. This, you will easily understand, has )i not given me the same opportunity of acquiring information in my own special a] department, which I enjoyed during a former absence, when I took occasion to f visit the military hospitals and medical schools of the great continental states i of Prussia, of Austria, of France, and of Belgium, our own military and naval )j hospitals at Malta, and the interesting establishment for the instruction of h young surgeons at the military hospital of Grand Cairo in Egypt. I have not, however, been altogether idle, but have been engaged in an | extended inquiry into the state of hospitals generally, have once more visited Ij all those in London, and .have taken occasion to make myself acquainted 1 with the localities and construction of the principal hospitals in Somerset d and Devonshire, particularly those of Bath, Bristol, Taunton, Exeter, Barn- i staple, and Plymouth. At the last-mentioned place, I had the pleasure of 1 visiting the great naval hospital—one of the government hospitals which I had <j long desired to see—and found it in the most perfect order, under the superin- ^ tendence of Dr Rae, of the Navy—an old friend, whose acquaintance I first <j formed at Madras, upwards of forty years ago. By his kindness, and that or cj one of his assistants, Mr McDonald, I am enabled to present to you this view I of the institution over which he presides—an institution worthy of the naval d character of the country, and to which (along with other views and plans of i hospitals) I shall take an early opportunity of directing your attention,.having I always looked upon the site, the construction, the ventilation, and the interior a economy of hospitals, as one of the most important of all topics to an army u surgeon. At present I proceed, without further preface, to lay before yon, as I have ij hitherto done, some of those peculiarities which characterise military surgery T as a separate branch of study, and to offer yon a few historical notices of the t] progress of the art itself, and of those who have been distinguished amongst its ( practitioners. Exceptions have been taken to the term military surgery, as if it 1 was desired to imply by it something different in principle, as well as in piae- i tice, from common surgery. Now, although I do not think it unnatural that the j art and its professors should have taken their designation from that branch of it which, upon great and momentous occasions, constitutes its most; distinctive feature, yet I wish to observe, once for all, that I employ this term as embiao- SUTHERLAND AND KNOX, GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH