Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

272 CH1RURGIA. CHIRURGIA.
given to the care of the persons concerned. By prevented his attaining any very great perfection,
the Canonists, Blackstone remarks, the word syn- still, we should rather admire his genius, which
grapha or syngraphzus was employed in the same enabled him to do so much, than blame him beway, and hence gave its name to these kind of cause, with his deficient information, he was able
writings. [B. J.] to do no more. The scientific skill in reducing
CHIRU'RGIA (XElpoupyla), surgery. The fractures and luxations displayed in his works,
practice of surgery was, for a long time, considered De Fracturis, De Articulis, excites the admiraby the ancients to be merely a part of a physician's tion of Jialler (Biblioti. CIsir'eg.), and he was
duty; but as it is now almost universally allowed most probably the inventor of the anzbe, an old
to be a separate branch of the profession, it will chilrurgical machine for dislocations of the shoulder,
perhaps be more convenient to treat of it under a which, though now fallen into disuse, for a long
separate head. It will not be necessary to touch time enjoyed a great reputation. In his work De
upon the disputed questions, which is the mnore Capitis Vulneribus he gives minute directions
ancient, or which is the mnore honourable branch of about the time and mode of using the trephine,
the profession; nor even to try to give such a and warns the operator against the probability of
definition of the word clsirurgia as would be likely his being deceived by the sutures of the cranium,
to satisfy both the physicians and surgeons of the as he confesses happened to himself. (De Molrb.
present day; it will be sufficient to determine the Vulgar. lib. v. p. 561, ed. Kiihn.) The author of
sense in which the word was used by the ancients; the Oath, commonly attributed to Hippocrates,
and then, adhering closely to that meaning, to give binds his pupils not to perform the operation of
an account of this division of the science and art lithotomy, but to leave it to persons accustomed to
of medicine, as practised among the Greeks and it (Ep'ydr7o1 &eapdal' 7rptos r7iose); from which
Romans, referring to the article MEDICINA for it would appear as if certain persons confined themfurther particulars. selves to particular operations.
The word chirurgia is derived from Xelp the The names of several persons are preserved who
hand, and Ep-yos a work, and is explained by practised surgery as well as medicine, in the times
Celsus (De Med. lib. vii. Praefat.) to mean that immediately succeeding those of Hippocrates,; but,
part of medicine quaze zanu curat, "which cures with the exception of some fragments, inserted in
diseases by means of the hand," in Diogenes the writings of Galen, Oribasius, Aetius, &c., all
Lai'rtius (iii. 85) it is said to cure ala -roV- TE-/,LVc their writings have perished. Archagathus deical aileu,, "; by cutting and burning;" nor (as far serves to be mentioned, as he is said to have been
as the writer is aware) is it ever used by ancient the first foreign surgeon that settled at Rome
authors in any other sense. Omitting the fabulous B. c. 219. (Cassius Hemina, caprd Plin. H. AN
and mythological personages, Apollo, Aesculapius, xxix. 6.) He was at first very well received, the
Chiron, &c., the only certain traditions respecting jzs Q2ziritiums was conferred upon him, a shop was
the state of surgery before the establishment of bought for him at the public expense, and he rethe republics of Greece, and even until the time of ceived the honourable title of Vuleerarives. This,
the Peloponnesian war, are to be found in the however, on account of his frequent use of the
Iliad and Odyssey. There it appears that surgery knife and cautery, was soon changed by the Rowas almost entirely confined to the treatment of mans (who were unused to such a mode of pracwounds; and the imaginary power of enchantment tice) into that of Carczifex. Asclepiades, who
was joined with the use of topical applications. lived at the beginning of the first century n. c., is
(lt. iii. 218, xi. 515, 828, 843, &c. &c.) The said to have been the first person who proposed
Greeks received surgery, together with the other the operation of bronchotomy, though he himself
branches of medicine, from the Egyptians; and never performed it (Cael. Aurel. De lsorb. Acnt.
from some observations made by the men of i. 14. iii. 4); and Ammonius of Alexandria, surscience who accompanied the French expedition to named AmOo'rdbos, who is supposed to have lived
Egypt in 1798, it appears, that there are docu- rather later, is celebrated in the annals of surgery
meats fully proving that in very remote times this for having been the first to propose and to perform
extraordinary people had made a degree of pro- the operation of Lithzotrity, or breaking a calculus
gress of which few of the moderns have any con- in the bladder, when found to be too large for
ception: upon the ceilings and walls of the temples safe extraction. Celsus has minutely described
at Tentyra, Karnack, Luxor, &c., basso-relievos his mode of operating (De Med. vii. 26. ~ 3. p.
are seen, representing limbs that have been cut off 436), which very much resembles that lately inwith instruments very analogous to those which troduced by Civiale and Heurteloup, and which
are employed at the present day for amputations. proves, that however much credit they may deThe same instruments are again observed in the serve for bringing it again out of oblivion into
]hieroglyphics, and vestiges of other surgical opera- public notice, the praise of having originally
tions may be traced, which afford convincing proofs thought of it belongs to the ancients. " A hook,"
of the skill of the ancient Egyptians in this branch says Celsus, "is to be so insinuated behind the
of medical science. (Larry, quoted in Cooper's stone as to resist and prevent its recoiling into the
Surg. Diet.) bladder, even when struck; then an iron instruThe earliest remaining surgical writings are ment is used, of moderate thickness, flattened
those of Hippocrates, who was born B. c. 460, and towards the end, thin, but blunt; which being
died B. c. 357. Among his reputed works there placed against the stone, and struck on the further
are ten treatises on this subject, only one of which end, cleaves it; great care being taken, at the
however is considered undoubtedly genuine. Hip- same time, that neither the bladder itself be inpocrates far surpassed all his predecessors (and jured by the instrument, nor the fragments of the
indeed most of his successors) in the boldness and stone fall back into it." The next surgical writer
success of his operations; and though the scanty after Hippocrates, whose works are still extant,
knowledge of anatomy possessed in those times is Cclsus, who lived at the beginning of the first