The Grit-advocate., 1900-07-27
TALK ON ONE OF THE MISSIONS
OF CHRIST.
Emcaey of Divine Power In Healing the
Worlds Wounds and Detormities-Th
Intimate Relations of Surgery and
Theology,

unusual light the mission of Christ
and shows how divine power will yet
make the illnesses of the world fall
back; text Matthew xi, 5, "The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear"
Doctor" l said to a distinguished
surgeon, "do you not get worn out
with constantly seeing SO many
wounds and broken bones and distor-
tions of the human body?" "Oh, no."
he answered, "all that is overcome by
my joy in curing them. A sublimer
and more merciful art never came
down from heaven than that of sur
gerry. Catastrophe and disease entered
the earth so early that one of the first
wants Of the world was doctor. Our
crippled and agonized human race call
ed for surgeon and family physician
for many years before they came. The
hrst surgeons who answered this call
were ministers of religion-namely,
the Egyptian priests. And what
grand thing if all clergymen were also
doctors, all D. DIS were M. DIS, for
there are SO many cases where body
and soul need treatment at the same
time, consolation and medicine, the
ology and therapeutics. AS the first
surgeons of the world were also minis
ters of religion, may these two profess
sions always be in full sympathy! But
under what disadvantages the early
surgeons worked, from the fact that
the dissection of the human body was
forbidden, first by the pagans, and
then by the early Christians! Apes,
being the brutes most like the human
race, were dissected, but no human
body might be unfolded for physi-
illogical and anatomical exploration,
and the surgeons had to guess what
was inside the temple by looking at
the outside of it. If they failed in
any surgical operation, they were per-
secuted and driven out of the city, as
was Archagathus because of his bold
but unsuccessful attempt to save pa
tlent.
The Surgeon in History.
But the world from the very begin
ming, kept calling for surgeons, and
their first skill is spoken of in Genesis,
where they employed their art for the
incisions Of sacred rite, God making
surgery the predecessor of baptism,
and we see it again in II Kings, where
Ahaziah, the monarch, stepped on
some cracked latticework in the pal
ace, and it broke, and he fell from the
upper to the lower floor, and he was
80 hurt that he sent to the village Of
Ekron for aid and Aesculapius, who
wrought such wonders of surgery, that
he was deifled and temples were built
for his worship at Pergamos; and Epi-
daurus and Podelirus introduced for
the relief of the world phlebotomy,
and Damocedes cured the dislocated
ankle of King Darius and the cancer
of his queen and Hippocrates put sue
cessful hand on fractures and intro
duced amputation and Praxagoras re-
moved distractions, and Herophilus
began dissection and Erasistratus
removed tumors, and CELSIUS the Ro-
man surgeon, removed cataract from
the eye and used the Spanish fly; and
Heliodorus arrested disease of the
throat, and Alexander of Tralles treat
ed the eye, and Rhazas cauterized for
the prevention of hydrophobia. and
fercival Pott came to combat diseases
of the spine, and in our century we
have had, among others, a Roux, and
Larray in France, an Ashley Cooper
and an Abernethy in Great Britain and
Valentine Mott and Willard Parker
and Samuel d. Gross in America and