What has experimental physiology done for the advancement of the practice of surgery? : an address delivered before the Surgical Society of Ireland, at the opening meeting, 23rd November, 1877 / by Robert McDonnell.
- McDonnell, Robert, 1828-1889.
- Date:
- 1877
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: What has experimental physiology done for the advancement of the practice of surgery? : an address delivered before the Surgical Society of Ireland, at the opening meeting, 23rd November, 1877 / by Robert McDonnell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![not rendered “ devilish ” by this any more than a man would be who went from prison to prison to witness execution after execution, with the very laudable object of making the process of hanging so complete, that even wretched criminals may be saved from a prolonged and painful agony in their exit from this world. # We have the authority of the great moral philosopher, Bishop Butler, for this simple distinction between the passive and active phases of what is awakened within us by witnessing distress in others. “ Perception of distress in others, ” says this learned author, “ is a natural excite- ment, passively to pity, and actively to relieve it. But let a man set himself to attend to, inquire out, and relieve distressed persons, and he cannot but grow less and less sensibly affected with the various miseries of life with which he must become acquainted ; when yet, at the same time, benevolence, considered not as a passion, but as a practical principle of action, will strengthen; and whilst he passively compassionates the distressed less, he will acquire a greater aptitude actively to assist and befriend them. ” Like the muscles, the human affections and sympathies gain strength and vigour by exercise. The use of the sledge-hammer makes the palm less liable to be galled or blistered, but it is what gives strength and power to the thews and sinews of the smith’s right arm. The active effort to relieve distress, the firm determination to subdue the selfish part of the emotion of pity, and the struggle to face scenes, whether in the dissecting-room or the dead-house, the operation-theatre or the physiological laboratory, from which most men shrink back at first with horror and] disgust—this is what strengthens within the surgeon some of the noblest qualities that human beings are endowed with. Thus there is developed within him the truest, the most active benevolence. Not that I assert that we are made of a superior clay to other mortals ; but merely that the circumstances which surround our lives tend to produce these natural results. “ But, ” continues](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22368620_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
