an inch of the edges, and brought the lips close within a narrow compass; and having tied that ligature fast, and cut off the string, I passed the needle again through the two contrary sides, which I tied as close; then loosened the ligature above, and applied the little round stupes of tow spread with a quantity of Galen's powder mixed with egg albumen. The long pledgits were applied from the middle of the stump each way upwards along the arm, over which I put on a bladder and a cross cloth, then rowled up the stump, and made the bandage [pass] under his other arm and over his neck. . . . He being thus dressed up, we put him into his bed. The third day we took off his dressings, and found the stump well digested, and at least two spoonfuls of matter discharged. . . . During which the bone exfoliated, and the stump soon after cicatrized. Then having procured a pass to come to London, I hastened away.
(2) A lady coming to town with a swelling in her left breast, consulted some of our Profession, and at last me. She said she had some years since kernels in her breast, which were judged the "King's Evil"; upon consideration of which she was presented to His Majesty, and touched. In progress of time they swelled, and her breast being extremely painful, she desired my judgment of it. The swelling was large and round, and greatly inflamed, under which it was soft and seemed to have matter in it. The parts more distant were hard, and several tubercles lying under the skin made it unequal; yet the breast was not fixed. She urged me instantly to deliver my thoughts of it; which to decline I turned from her, and told her friend it was a cancer, and that I saw no hopes to save her life but by cutting it off. He wished me to consider how I delivered such judgment of it, two chirurgeons having lately assured her the contrary, they taking it for a phlegmon. But I, not being used to guide my judgment by what others delivered, confirmed to him what I had before said by a sad prediction, which befel her in few weeks after. And indeed there was no way then to deal with it but by cutting off her breast.
One is not a little startled, after reading a number of
case-histories like the two which I have just reproduced,
to discover other portions of text (Vol. I., pp. 384 and 385)
which show clearly that Wiseman, although a surgeon of
the most practical character and a man equipped with
excellent reasoning powers when he was placed in the
presence of most of the problems which are constantly
