n
succeeded by another still more successful until the surgeon's work is
at the present time performed within a sphere that was until recently
supposed to be entirely beyond his reach.

As to the liver, that great organ is freely examined and is treated
surgically with considerable freedom. This is true also of the
stomach, which until recently was supposed to be entirely beyond the
surgeon's touch. Within the last two decades sections of the stomach
have been made and parts of the organ removed. Not a few cases are
recorded in which subjects have fully recovered after the removal of a
part of the stomach. Sections of the intestinal canal have also been
made with entire success. Several inches of that organ have in some
cases been entirely removed, with the result of recovery! The spleen
has been many times removed; but it has been recently noted that a
decline in health and probably death at a not distant date generally
follow this operation.

The disease called appendicitis has either in our times become
wonderfully frequent or else the improved methods of diagnosis have
made us acquainted with what has long been one of the principal
maladies of mankind. The _appendix vermiformis_ seems to be a useless
remnant of anatomical structure transmitted to us from a lower animal
condition. At least such is the interpretation which scientists
generally give to this hurtful and dangerous tube-like blind channel
in connection with the bowels. That it becomes easily inflamed and is
the occasion of great loss of life can not be doubted. Its removal by
surgical operation is now regarded as a simple process which even the
unlearned surgeon, if he be careful and talented, may safely perform.
The surgical treatment of appendicitis has become so common as to
attract little or no notice from the profession. Even the country
neighborhood no longer regards such a piece of surgery as sensational.

The use of surgical means in the cure, that is the removal, of tumors,
both external and internal, has been greatly extended and perfected.
The surgeon now carries a quick eye for the tumor and a quick remedy
for it. In nearly all cases in which it has not become constitutional
he effects a speedy cure with the knife. The cancerous part is cut
away. It has been observed that as the recent mortality from
consumption has decreased cancerous diseases have become more
frequently fatal. Whether or not there be anything vicarious in the
action of t