After summarizing the history of his subject, Dr. Warren then justifies dissection as an essential component to anatomical study: “At the first view of dissections, the stomach is apt to turn, but custom wears off such impressions. It is anatomy that directs the knife in the hand of a skilful surgeon, & shews him where he may perform any necessary operation with safety to the patient. It is this which enables the physician to form an accurate knowledge of diseases & open dead bodies with grace, to discover the cause or seat of the disease, & the alteration it may have made in the several parts.”
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This manuscript tract on the treatment of fever was written in Montpellier, France, in the middle of the thirteenth century. The manuscript is one of the oldest in the Countway Library and also the first item acquired for the Hyams Collection.