THE requirements of the medical examining boards of this country seem to imply that a practical knowledge of operative surgery should form an essential part of the education of every surgeon, and that henceforth operative dexterity should be acquired by practice on the dead body.
For this reason, the performance of surgical operations on the subject has been introduced at most of our medical schools; and demonstrators have been appointed to superintend and direct the studies of gentlemen in that department.
The design of the present Manual is to give to students a practical guide to the performance of operations on the dead body, and to lighten the labours of teachers, by enabling them to dispense with much oral instruction, and to substitute the same kind of supervision that is ordinarily exercised in the study of practical anatomy.
Only those operative measures are here treated of, which can be advantageously practised on the dead body; and these are arranged, as far as possible, in the order in which