Note 5 — A DISSERTATION ON THE Inutility of Amputation.

Celsus de re medica, l. 7. præf. Nevertheless Mr. Dionis, in his course of operations, (Demonstr. 2, Art. 9.) acknowleges, that even the most intrepid surgeons tremble at the instant they are going to perform this operation. Of all the operations, says he, that which occasions the greatest horror, is the amputation of a thigh, a leg or an arm. When a surgeon is about to take off a limb, and reflects on the cruel means he must employ, he cannot help feeling a tremour, and pitying the misfortune of the poor patient, who is under a fatal necessity of being deprived, for life, of a part of his body. And in another place he says, This operation ought rather to be performed by a butcher than by a surgeon.