Distinction between Surgery as practised in the Army and in Civil Life Soldiers as Patients, and the Character of the Injuries to which they are liable Some Peculiarities in the Wounds and Injuries seen during the late War. THAT military surgery does not differ from the surgery life, is an assertion which is true in letter, but not in spirit. As a science, surgery, wherever practiced, is one ami indivisible; but as an art, it varies according to the peculiar nature of the injuries with which it has to deal, and with tin- circumstances in which it falls to be c>. To the surgeon practising in camp, many accident-ntrd which seldom or never come within the observation of the civil practitily distinct from one surir'"n during pence enters tor a time into civil lite; but war he is called upon to cise the very highest functions of his profession, and to (In with the more trivial accidents which constitute the sum of a private pract itioner's daily o midniil.tedl;. ted I" a smaller variety of cases.
He sees dian >f the in ipressed upon disease sriJGERY OF THE CRIMKAN WAR. l>y age and sex; Imt in war lie lias a wider field for noticing the influence of external circumstances, of tremes of climate, of variations in food, work, and shelter on the same men, as well as the effects of mental causes, as seen in the exultation of victory and in the prostration and dejection of defeat. But though there may exist such distinctions between the spheres of the military and those of the civil surgeon, there is surely nothing in the exercise of their different callings which should create an antagonism between them. They are both members of the same priesthood, whose office it is to minister to suffering man, and the experiences collected by each should be willingly laid as common offerings on the altar of science.
To no class of professional men is a liberal education more important than to the army surgeon. To command that respect which is necessary for the right exercise of his official duties, he must be superior in general knowledge to his comrades. The many countries and varied climates to which he is sent, and the delicate positions in which his service often places him, demand the possession of an enlarged and well-stored mind while the deep responsibility attached to the charge of such a number of valuable lives, and the necessity imposed by the absence of a " consultant " of deciding the most critical cases on his own unaided judgment, demand the firm self-reliance founded on clear knowledge as essential to any measure of success.