o
gain _eclat_, but to save human life. He believed much in skilled
surgery, something in nature, but most of all in God. So it transpired
that on the eve of a great operation he frequently knelt at the
bedside, and sought skill and strength and success from the great
Source of all vitality. We are told that the moral effect upon the
patient, and the peaceful composure that followed, were not the least
of the agencies that so often rendered his surgery successful.

"But he was not content blindly to accept the dictum of those who had
gone before. Every principle was carefully scrutinized, and whatever
he believed to be false he did not hesitate to attack, and so his name
came to be associated with surgical progress. As illustrative of this
point, some instances may be adduced.

"In the year 1830, and before that period, Sir Astley Cooper had
taught the doctrine of non-union in cases of intra-capsular fracture,
and it was generally accepted as an established principle at that
time. Dr. Mussey carried a specimen to England which he believed
showed the possibility of such union taking place. Sir Astley on first
seeing it said, "This was never broken," but on seeing a section of
the same specimen remarked, 'This does look a little more like it, to
be sure, but I do not think the fracture was entirely within the
capsular ligament.' John Thompson of Edinburgh, on seeing it, declared
'upon his troth and honor' that it had never been broken. This eminent
surgeon, like the disputatious Massachusetts Scotchman, 'always
positive and sometimes right,' was in this instance mistaken, as the
principle advocated by Dr. Mussey is now established.

"As a surgeon he was bold and fearless, ever willing to assume any
legitimate responsibility, even though it took him into the
undiscovered country of experiment. He did not do this rashly, but
only when the stake was worthy of the risk. There is still living in
Hanover a monument of Dr. Mussey's pluck and skill. This man had a
large, ulcerated and bleeding naevus on the vertex of his head, which
threatened a speedy death. There seemed no way to relieve the patient
except by tying both carotids, which was regarded as an operation
inevitably fatal. The danger was imminent, and as Dr. Mussey could see
no way to untie the knot, he determined to cut it. He tied one
carotid, and in twelve days tied the other, following both operations
in a few weeks with a removal of the tumor. The recovery was