Читать книгу The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method - M. Le Clerc - Страница 8

Table of Contents

So great a number of Treatises of Surgery, as well Ancient as Modern, have been already publish'd, that a plenary Satisfaction seems to have been long since given on this Subject, even to the Judgment of the most curious Inquirers: But if it be consider'd that a young Surgeon ought always to have in view the first Principles of this Noble Art explain'd after a familiar and intelligible manner, it will be soon acknowledg'd that there is good reason to set about the Work anew: For besides that the Writings of the Ancients being so voluminous, are not portable, they are also very intricate and confus'd; nay the whole Art has been so far improv'd and brought to perfection by able Masters in the present Age, that they are now almost become unprofitable.

Some Modern authors have set forth certain small Tracts, which only explain a few Chirurgical Operations, and on that account deserve only the Name of Fragments. Indeed the Works of some others seem to be sufficiently compleat, but are printed in so large Volumes, and contain so many Discourses altogether foreign from the principal Subject, that they have almost the same Inconveniences with those of the Ancients. Therefore the Reader is here presented with a small Treatise of Surgery, yet very plain and perspicuous, in a portable Volume; being free from a Multiplicity of impertinent Words, and containing every thing of moment that has been producd by the most approv'd Authors both Ancient and Modern.

An Introduction is made into the Matter by small Colloquies or Dialogues, to the end that the young Student may be at first lead as it were by the Hand; but as soon as he has attain'd to a considerable Progress in these Studies, this innocent and puerile manner of speaking is abandon'd, to conduct him in good earnest to the most sublime Heights of so admirable an Art; to which purpose, after having penetrated into its first Rudiments and Grounds, he is well instructed in Anatomy, and furnish'd with a general Idea of Wounds and Tumours, which are afterward treated of in particular: He is also taught a good Method of curing Wounds made by Gun-shot, the Scurvy, and all sorts of Venereal Diseases: From thence he is introduced into the Practice of all manner of Chirurgical Operations in Fractures and Luxations; together with the use of their respective Dressings and Bandages.

At the end of the Work is added a compleat Chirurgical Dispensatory, shewing the Method of preparing such Medicinal Compositions as are chiefly us'd in the Art of Surgery; so that upon the whole Matter, it may be justly affirm'd, that this little Manual has all the Advantages of the Ancient and Modern Writings on the same Subject, and is altogether free from their Superfluities and Defects.