universal ; and he drew attention to the important distinction between gangrene dependent on a con- stitutional cause, and that which springs from the severity of a local injury. In the latter, he advised immediate amputation, without waiting for the establishment of a boundary between the dead and living parts; and the instances which he gave of the successful application of this new distinction have been amply confirmed by the experience of others.
Fortunately for mankind, the clearest intellect is commonly accompanied by a benevolent heart, and the perspicacity of Larrey was equalled by his humanity.
Of all Napoleon’s campaigns, that of 1813 was the most equally, the most severely, the most fiercely contested. It was then that Prussia, rising almost to a man, displayed a spirit at least equal to that of France in 1793; and in the combats which ensued, the effects of science and art in war were heightened by the heroic, it may be the rancorous, feelings of those engaged.
After the battles of Bautzen and Wirchen, it was suggested to Napoleon that the number of the wounded had been increased by voluntary mutila- tion; and that all who had lost a finger, or whose hand had been pierced by a ball, were traitors who wished to escape from the service.
Napoleon ordered that the wounded of this class, to the number of 1200, should be separated from the rest; and that a commission, consisting of several principal surgeons, should examine each of
