THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 29
division of the tendinous cords impeding the restoration of a distorted and contracted joint, seems to be but the re-introduction of an old operation; but the foundation of it was laid in the beautiful illustrations to be found in our museum of the re-union of a divided tendon, even the largest of the heel, and to the experiments upon which subject, it is known that Mr. Hunter was directed by his reflections on the union of the ruptured tendo Achilles in his own person, which, to his surprize, he observed to have taken place by the interposition of bone.
To do honour to surgery, to show the advances it is making, has been my object in citing some of the striking events in its modern history. The tillers of the field of science are more numerous than they were in ancient times, and this is one of the circumstances now concurring to its more rapid progress. But as in science, Honour can be rendered to intellectual labour alone, so I desire here to record my warm admiration of the labour bestowed by the medical sages of antiquity in acquiring the varied knowledge then considered to form the foundation of medicine. Their biographies, and the works they have left us, abundantly attest the intensity of their efforts, With advantage may we reflect on the extent and the variety of the studies successfully pursued by Boerhaave, so loudly celebrated, and so universally lamented through the whole learned world, in the emphatic language of �
