The lancet. [Nos 316-317].

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lancet. [Nos 316-317]. 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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    NCET. THE LA . 3 /6 - 3 / y. y Vol. II.] LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19. [1328-9. A LECTURE,^ . INTRODUCTORY TO A COURSE ON ANATOMY, DELIVERED BY DR. WILLIAM HUNTER, October, 1775. Anatomy is the art of examining human bodies by dissection ; the advantages -we re- ceive from it are very great, the principal of which is, that it teaches a rational method of curing diseases. The word Anatomy is derived from the Greek, and, strictly speaking, signifies cut- ting, but in its most general acceptation is less confined, signifying any thing done with a view to discover the structure and organisation of animals, comprehending, in this sense, maceration, injection, corrosion, distillation, boiling, preservation, &c., and is extended to every part of the body. Anatomy is divided into human and compa- rative ; the first respects only the human species, the latter includes all other animals whatever ; the first, or human anatomy, is what we propose to teach, intending only to introduce occasionally just so much of the second as may be necessary to illustrate and more readily explain the first. 1 he structure of the human body in many parts is so extremely delicate and fine, as to remain yet undiscovered; in others it is more apparent, and comes under our inspection. Erom the dissection of brutes, the ancients gained all the anatomical knowledge they were possessed of; -no wonder then that we find their descriptions of the human body were erroneous and incorrect, and so great- ly inferior to those of the moderns, who have such frequent opportunities of having recourse to human bodies to solve their dif- ficulties. •1 his, as well as most of the arts, have undergone many revolutions ; at one time it has been held in the highest veneration, and cultivated by men of eminence, at another No. 316. time it has been despised and neglected : as to its origin we are still in the dark ; like other things, perhaps, it had no precise beginning, the common accidents of life awakening now and then an attentive mind to the consideration of the subject, so that it is very probable the first man might have attained some knowledge of the external form, and even a small degree of the internal. This rude knowledge gradually improving, from men’s having observed the alteration, in bodies by all kinds of violence, funeral ceremonies, and such like, at last grew into a system : it must have received great as- sistance from the ceremonies used at sacri- fices ; he whose duty it was to perform these rites, could not but find something to engage the attention and excite reflection. The priest, the augur, but above all, the butcher, must have acquired some idea of the animal machine, these occupations leading them often to the inspection of brutes ; the finding of brutes similar in many respects to man- kind, and they being easily procured,induced men more frequently to examine into their texture, by which means a gradual insight was gained into the animal economy, and anatomy became a branch of learning. The Greeks are the first people we have any authentic accounts of, who studied it as an art; it is probable they first derived their knowledge from the eastern nations, parti- cularly the Ethiopians and Egyptians, from its being so closely connected with astro- nomy in its infancy. The Egyptians and other eastern nations, from the situation of their country, the clearness of the sky the greatest part of the year, and from their sleeping on the housetop, with no other ca- nopy than the heavens, could not fail of making many observations on the motion of the heavenly bodies ; and from the great in- fluence these motions were supposed to have on the human body, it is highly probable that they studied anatomy likewise. How- ever that may be, Thalis,surnamed the wise, is the first anatomist we have any account ol, and this was 580 years before Christ. No progress was made in the art till the time of Hippocrates, who was contemporary with Socrates, Xenophon, and Plato, 400 years before tire Christian era. They divided ana- 3 D
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