The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-03
HEROISM OF SURGEONS
INTERESTING ADDRESS BY DIR.
MITCHELL BANKS AT MONTREAL.
British Army Medical Department
Treated ShabbiIy-PrOf. Richet ON
Protective Vaccinations.

MONTREAL, Sept. "A notable address
was delivered to-day at the meeting of the
British Medical Association. In the surgery
section DR.. Mitchell Banks, of Liverpool,
departed from the usual custom
of technical addresses and spoke
on the heroism of surgeons
1t was a facnatingly historical resume of
surgery from the earliest times He
done of old by body of members of their
profession who have never received their
due reward-those, namely. who have de-
voted their lives to the succor of the sick
and the wounded in war" His friend, Dr.
Barnes, of Carlisle, ex-president of the asso-
citation, made him acquainted with a re-
markable paper by the late Sir James
Simpson, entitled WAS the Roman Army
Provided with Medical Officers?" a paper
which he deemed exhibited such profound
learning so charmingly written and so lit
tie known that he need not make apology
for calling attention to some of its chief
points of interest.
THE most careful Investigations DR..
Banks said, have failed to make out from
their writings whether the Romans regu-
larly appointed physicians and surgeons to
their armies or not, although nearly every
other question relating to their military or
ganzation has been treated of, sometimes
very fully. Curiously enough, what little
information we possess on the subject
comes mainly from mortuary or from vo-
tive tablets. BorcoVlcuS, in Northumber-
land-noW called HousesteadS--was one of
the principal stations on the line of Had
rams wall.
SURGEONS OF COHORTS.
1.-The First Hungarian Cohort is known to
~. fla r,fN
Grampius, and to have served at Castle
cary at Cramond, near Edinburgh. in Cum
berland, and at Housesteads. The tablet
is highly ornamented, and antiquarians
hold that a rabbit and round buckles
carved in the upper part, which are en-
blems of Spain, show that the young mill
tary doctor was probably a native of that
country From various works treating on
Roman inscriptions Simpson was enabled
to find that four more tablets, in which
surgeons of cohorts are mentioned existed.
They were found at Rome. one OF them is
q VotiVe tablet, the inscription upon Wnlch
intimateS that it was dedicated by SeXtuS
Titus Alexander to Aesculapius and to the
safety of his fellow-soldiers 1t was cut IN
the year of the conSulship OF h. flaVtus
Sabinus which is known 10 nave been A. ID.
SO. AS the Roman legion consisted OF ten
cohorts, it is interesting to know that there
were not only medical officers attached to
each cohort, but also one attached ia the
leeiOn-a sort of surgeon colonel, as we
should cali him nowadays. Three tablets
have been discovered in which the medicuS
legion is mentioned. One found at Verona
was a tablet raised by Scribona FauStind
70 her dearest husband, j. Cactus Arri-
anus medical officer TO the second italian
legion, who died at the age of torty-nlne
years and seven months. Furthermore
Simpson routed out of Mommsens Latin
inscriptions of Naples tablet, now IN the
Dresden collection, which was found IN the
Elysian fields near Balae, close 10 for!uS
julius which the station or DIVISION
of the imperial fleet.
"Phe Inscription tells that NJ. Satrus
I,onginls medicus duplicatorius TO the Tri-
rene Cupid and the heirs of those freed
by Julia Veneria, erected the tablet TO the
names of that deserving lady Inc term
duplicotorius means that by reason OF long
and meritorious service he was entitied 10
double pay and rewards. Ihese httIe sleah-
ings from Simpsons paper snow what an
interesting one it is, ana one is astonlsned
at the labor that must have been EXPENDED
i'm digging up the information contained in
IT. Hundred of years went past DetOfe
there came upon the scene any military
surgeon of note, but when ne ala appear
he was a man of tranSccndent merlt-the
illustrious AMBROSE Pare From l5l1 to
1890. for seventy-three years, he lived long
and necessarily active life, the contem-
porary of NesaliuS, the immaculate pIeuS-
cessor of Harvey tc,,
DIR. Banks referred TO Robert Cloves, a
surgeon who saw no little nghlIIis, Mu9
served in France in the army commanded
BY the Earl of Surrey, and was afterwards
for several years in the navy contempt
aracter-Maister Peter Lowe, who was
born in Scotland about 1850, and lived some
sixty or sixty-tve years reaching wen ln'o
the seventeenth century
COURAGEOUS 'SAW-BONES."
The doctor then gave an account OF the
adventurous life of Richard Wiseman, who
has been termed the father of English sur
gerry. and that not without reason. who was
a naval surgeon TO begin with, serving in
the early part of his life in the Dutch navy.
Continuing, he said: The Chirurgien-en-
chef de la Grande Armee. the friend and
body surgeon Of Napoleon, the greatest
military surgeon that ever lived. Baron
Larrey's whole life shows that, while abso-
lutely devoted to the work of his profess
sion he displayed a cool courage on the
field of battle not less heroic than the more
dazzling deeds OF his fellow cOmbatant of.
icers. Not less does II mark the military