At this period, Mr. Abernethy published sundry other interesting papers, showing, in his observations of all that was passing around him, that his views were not less circumspect and comprehensive than they were clear. His "surgical cases" are all excellent; and if they do not contain so full an account (the great vice of medical records) of all the circumstances which preceded them, as are sufficient to furnish future investigators with the elements of accurate generalization, they are remarkably valuable for the qualities of clearness and candour. We may have an opportunity of briefly alluding to some of these papers in our summary; but they are hardly practicable subjects for popular analysis, although they form some of the most valuable contributions to the practical literature of the profession. They show also that he was as penetrative and efficient in regard to the operative department of practice, as he was in those higher and more extended views, which, in enlarging the _science_ of surgery, has tended to diminish, of course, the number of operations. About the year 1785, John Hunter had invented his celebrated improvement in the treatment of a disease of the arteries called "Aneurism." It was a very simple deduction from observations on the state of the arteries; and although it was one of those inquiries which had been made the subject of experiments on living animals, it was one on which _not the smallest light_ had been thrown by such investigations. Mr. Hunter had found that, in addition to many other serious objections to an operation which had been usually performed for the relief of this disease—which consists either of a giving way of a _portion_, or a general enlargement, of a vessel (for it is sometimes one, sometimes the other)—a great cause of failure had been, that the ligature which was placed round the artery was too near the disease, and, in fact, involved a portion of the tube which was unsound. He accordingly proposed tying the artery a little farther off, and thus substituted, for an operation which was extremely severe, very hazardous, and too commonly fatal, a comparatively short and simple proceeding, which, under _moderately favourable auspices_, is almost uniformly successful. As with many other discoveries, accident and similarity of views had suggested similar proceedings to others, so that continental surgeons were disposed to dispute the merit of the discovery in favour of Guillemeau, Guattani, Anel, Desault, &c., as their views favoured one or other; but there can be no doubt that for the first clear exposition of the _principles_ of the operation, as well as of the objects it was designed to accomplish, we are indebted to John Hunter.