Lecture, correlative to a course, on surgery, in the University of Pennsylvania : embracing a short account of eminent Belgian surgeons, physicians, &c. &c. : delivered December 22, 1847 / by William Gibson.

  • Gibson, William, 1788-1868.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lecture, correlative to a course, on surgery, in the University of Pennsylvania : embracing a short account of eminent Belgian surgeons, physicians, &c. &c. : delivered December 22, 1847 / by William Gibson. 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.

    22/32 (page 22)
    as ever assembled upon a batlle-field ; where Piclon, and Ponsonhy, and Gordon, and Delancey, and the brave “ Ilunoveriuns fell; where Ney, with all the intrepidity and desperation belonging to his nature, made charge upon charge of the most appalling kind ; where the farm La Ilaye, steeped in carnage and in blood, taken and retaken with tremendous loss, more especially to the noble German Legion, which fought till every drop of blood was poured from its veins; w'here Im Belle Alliance and Planchenoit, so disastrous to the six thousand valiant Prussians, whose dead bodies cumbered their grounds ; where Cha- teau Hougoumont, with its fortified and battered walls, defended by the “ Cold Stream Guards,” repulsed, with terrific slaughter, thou- sands upon thousands of the flower of the Emperor's troops; and lastly, where, from the summit of the “ Lion Mound,” two hundred feet above the level and extended plain, formed, apparently by nature for such a conflict, I could see and understand, as far as limited military knowledge would admit—all that had taken place. But other aspirations, more interesting to me by far than military skill and glory and destruction of human life, upon a gigantic scale, expended too often, there is reason to believe, upon the hideous and revolting principle, millions must die that Csesar maybe great,” crowded upon my mind. Then I asked myself the question, who were the true heroes upon that trying occasion, who the good Samaritans, able and willing to bind up wounds upon the road-side, for friends or foes, prepared to save life, not to destroy it ? The response came in soothing, refreshing whispers—Larrey, with his whole corps of well educated, experienced surgeons and compatriots ; Hennen, replete with Hunterian principles, and with practical skill, the result of many a hard fought day, surrounded by his friends and assistants, Oheirne, Knox, Gordon, Browning, Lindsay, Simpson, Jrwin, Blackadder, Laisne, Bakers, Somerville, Dease, Reid, Robinson, Gunning, Pockels, Suetin, Spangenberg—sustained by the invaluable counsel of Guthrie, Phom- son. Bell. These, I repeat, loere the heroes of the day, will be so con- sidered in after times, by every enlightened and Christian people, will receive, like Ambrose Pare of old, rewards and honors greater than emperors and kings can bestow—those of an approving conscience and of the Kiunr of kings—and wid be entitled to feel and to say ‘•Rogur.i limciuJornn .n proprios grogcs, Reges in ipsos impcrium cst Jo vis.” That the great battle of Waterloo, however, in conjunction with many preceding ones in Russia, Germany, Holland, and Spain, has been pro ductive o°f immeasurable good, by enlarging our knowledge of gun-shot