22 THE HUNTERIAN ORATION.
complex, and perpetually varying in the order of their occurrence must, with difficulty, be submitted to the calculation of number, which is, with manifest advantage, applied to other branches of science. I hear, for instance, my friends the physicians affirm, that the pre- vailing fevers of the present year are not the fevers of the last year, in the character of their symptoms, and by consequence, in the required treatment ; and accordingly that a numerical estimate of treatment, and its results, through the last year, would not be a safe guide to practice in the present. And true it is, as observed of Sydenham, that if figures had been his rule and method, he would not have bequeathed to posterity his admirable descriptions of the varied characters of epidemic disease, upon which his reputation so deservedly rests.
Forty-five years have elapsed since the death of Hunter, and in the certainty of truth, it may be affirmed, that in no corresponding period, have the actual discoveries and improvements in the science and art of surgery been so numerous, and of so striking a character. For our country, in fairness, a large portion of these may be claimed. With the invention of a practical science, portions of it may be at once brought to perfection; others must wait for the establishment of comprehensive views and general principles which can be but slowly matured; and in reference to medicine, it has been the great result of Mr. Hunter's �
