On the importance of a knowledge of the elements of practical surgery to naval and military officers / by William Henry Flower.

  • Flower, William Henry, 1831-1899.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of a knowledge of the elements of practical surgery to naval and military officers / by William Henry Flower. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A KNOWLEDGE'^OT'THE ELE- MENTS OF PRACTICAL SURGERY TO NAVAL AND MILITARY OFFICERS. By William Henry Flower, F.R.C.S., Assistant-Surgeon to the Middlesex C Hospital, formerly of II.M.’s 63rd Regiment. From the Journal of the United Service Institution, vol. iii. 1859. One of the numerous branches into which the art of warfare is divided, has for its immediate object the destruction of human life, or, as it may more correctly and perhaps more humanely be defined, the infliction of such injuries as shall disable from further service. This terrible art has certainly held no backward place amid the onward progress which has characterised all departments of human skill and knowledge. Every suc- cessive war, nay, almost every year of peace, has added its quota of pro- gress: even within this century, the general increase of the weight and force of the projectiles employed, especially the substitution of the heavy conical rifle bullet for the small round musket ball of the peninsular cam- paign, has added greatly to the severity and danger of the wounds received in battle. With this resistless onward progress of the destroyer there has been marching side by side, less obtrusively it is true, but not less surely, a companion art, whose only mission is to alleviate the sufferings and lessen t he devastation caused by the other. Almost paradoxical as it may appear, from the time that man first waged war upon, and begun to wound and kill his fellow-men, he has been ready to avail himself of all the knowledge and skill that could be obtained to save and to cure. We are not, however, at present so much concerned with what may be done. by those who are professionally engaged in the practice of surgery, as with what may sometimes be accomplished in the same direction by others. J Addresses have been occasionally given at this Institution upon the advantages of a knowledge of nearly every branch of science known to man, and I think that it is now generally admitted that the more varied and extensive any one’s knoivledge is the greater will be his powers of application to any particular science, and the greater will be his means of promoting his own happiness and that of mankind in general. This is especially applicable to those occupying the position of most of the members of this Institution, frequently led by their professional duties to situations remote from the resources and enjoyments, cares and distrac- tions of busy life, but still surrounded with food for study and contempla- mn m the ever present and yet ever interesting, ever instructive works of nature. On these grounds alone the science of surgery in all its branches nect and collateral, including anatomy, which teaches the structure, and p ysio ogy, w uch treats of the functions and actions of the component pai s o that wondrous work of God, the human frame, cannot be without interest to every mind endowed with powers of observation and reflection, u setting such considerations aside for the present, and looking upon