The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Wells, Spencer, 1818-1897.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Hunterian Oration : delivered February 14, 1883 at the Royal College of Surgeons of England / by T. Spencer Wells. 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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    all congratulate upon continued vigorous health and continued interest in the progress of Modern Surgery—a teacher of many who are now themselves teachers—Mr. Arnott—when delivering the Hunterian Oration, spoke of the great French Army-Surgeon, Larrey, who had recently died, as ‘ the first Military Surgeon who dressed the wounded under the very fire of the batteries,’ and said that to him we 4 owe our place of honour on the field of battle.’ The Army Surgeons of our day well maintain their reputation, not only for gallantry, but for self-sacrifice to duty. What can be finer than the conduct of Shepherd, who, riding away from the bloody field of Isandhlwana, with a good chance of escape, dismounted to assist a wounded man, and was killed by the assegais of the Zulus ; or of McCrea, who, severely wounded in the chest himself in the first charge, continued to attend the other wounded, as he was the only doctor on the field. In the military operations on the Transvaal frontier against the Boers, the courageous devotion of Army Surgeons to their duty was conspicuous. At Lang’s Neck, ‘as the 58th regiment advanced and the men were falling rapidly, Surgeons King and McGfann moved up behind the advancing column, and, on its retirement, remained, amidst a hail of bullets, attending to the wounded. . . . At the final disaster at Majuba Hill, the officers of the Medical Service remained faithful to their duties even unto death. Dr. Cornish was shot as, with a piper of the 92nd Highlanders, he was carrying a wounded man on a stretcher. . . . Landon, always keen for duty in the field, and taking a special pride in his Army Hospital Corps, met his fate at the final rush of the Boers. . . . The ruling passion strong in death, he called Dr. Babing- ton’s attention, shortly before he expired, to the meri-