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position, subordination, and movements. These, however intricate they may appear, all concur to establish the most perfect harmony in the human frame, which the attentive inquirer finds from Anatomy, to be created with the most geometrical exactness, according to laws prescribed by unerring wisdom.
In short, Anatomy is to be esteemed one of the principal pillars, on which we are to raise the superstructure of medical science, as well physic as surgery. Those who would engage in either cannot apply themselves too early, or with too much attention, in order to become skillful anatomists.
Can any one pretend to stile himself a Surgeon, or to perform any operation with safety, if he knows not the structure of the part he is to operate upon? If he is ignorant of the muscles which give it motion, or of the nerves which give it sensation, by cutting through the tendon of a muscle, or by dividing some principal nerve, he may forever deprive the patient of life, or movement in the part. If he knows not the course and distribution of its vessels, he may wound some considerable artery, and from the loss of blood may occasion dangerous accidents. Perhaps speedy death will be the consequence of his rashness.
