parts were now suffered to unite. In the course of a fortnight the adhesion became so strong, that the engrafted part would bear the experiment of being pulled and fillipped. "Licebit tunc experiri rem, et traducem jam infixum non leviter concutere, qui cum validiori nexu cum naribus conjunc-. tus sit, omnem motus tunc violentiam egregie sustinet."* It was then time to separate the new part from its attachment to the arm, which was performed by dividing the root of the slip. Nothing then remained but to cut the point of the nose into proper form, for which Taliacotius has given a mathematical rule, and to keep the artificial nostrils open, by means of tents, till the cure was completed, If we attentively consider this method of retrieving a deplorable misfortune, which was a frequent consequence of the gallantries of that time, it must be allowed that the artist who invented, and who singly * Taliacot, lib. ii, cap, xiii. practised it, possessed uncommon professional merit. But when we reflect, that the display of facts, precisely similar, respecting the power of union in living parts, has conferred high celebrity on one of the most eminent physiologists of our own times, our respect for the author of the sixteenth century advances to admiration.* I have too high an opinion of the genius of the late Mr. HUNTER, to suppose that he was indebted to Taliacotius for his observations on this subject; I believe they were really discoveries to him; but there can be no doubt that he was anticipated by the Italian author. It is a disagreeable proof of the neglect of medical literature, that facts, so important to the theory and practice of the art, were so long obscured by silly and unpardonable prejudice. If the general reader can tolerate my zeal in the cause of neglected merit, I would venture to observe, that Taliaçotius came * Taliacotius published his book in 1597. surprisingly near the present theory of the manner in which the union of living parts is effected. Had the true doctrine of the circulation of the blood been discovered in his time, he would have been deficient in nothing. His only guide, embarrassed as he was with ancient errors, which he was forced to respect, was the vegetable process of engrafting. This analogy led him so far, that he supposed the veins of the newly united parts to coalesce, by mutual elongation. The arteries were then supposed to contain no blood. He says, "Dicendum itaque est profecto vel novam vasorum sobolem denuo regenerari, vel conservatis iis, quæ cum brachio inhæreret [tradux], aderant, cutis ductibus et eorum oris, cum iis, quæ in curtis sunt, canaliculis commissis rursus coalescere; vel si neque hoc fiat, vasa illa in curtis existentia, hos novarum partium ductus excitare, et agendi vim tribuere." After considering, with great soli * Lib. i. cap. xxv. dity of reasoning, the supposition that new vessels were generated between the adherent parts (an idea which Mr. Hunter supported, to prove the life of the blood), he concludes in these words; " Itaque tamen ea, quæ sunt in traduce vasa, quam in stipite narium, conservata hactenus coire, et osculis adjunctis invicem coalescere, si quid ratio valet (nam hic oculi cæcutiunt) proculdubio affirmabimus."* The physiological reader only can appreciate the profound sagacity of this conclusion, in a writer who lived long before the discovery of the true course of the blood. If Taliacotius had exchanged places with Harvey, he would probably have made better use of that improvement, which Harvey contented himself with holding out to admiration. O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, * Id. ib. Several inconveniences attended the arti ficial noses engrafted by our author, which he has specified, and which could only be known from actual experience. It was necessary to make the new parts considerably larger than the original nose,* because in the course of a year or two, they became shrivelled with cold, and at the end of that time were even smaller than the ancient organs. The first severe frost after the operation was apt to discolour the nose, or even to turn it black, and sometimes to make it fall off: it was therefore to be preserved like a Russian's nose, in a cover. However, it was thought a less evil, to wear a nose rather too large and too long, for a few years, than to have no nose at all.† Another grievance was, that the new nose being taken from a part which is covered with longer down than the skin of the face, * Lib. i. cap. xxiv. In quo restitutæ nares ex cutanea propagine, a naturalibus ante resectis differant. + Ibid. |
