- end_line
- 10135
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 10073
- text
- Several volunteered; when, selecting one, Cuticle surrendered the
instrument to him, saying, “Don’t be hurried, now; be steady.”
While the rest of the assistants looked upon their comrade with glances
of envy, he went rather timidly to work; and Cuticle, who was earnestly
regarding him, suddenly snatched the saw from his hand. “Away, butcher!
you disgrace the profession. Look at _me!_”
For a few moments the thrilling, rasping sound was heard; and then the
top-man seemed parted in twain at the hip, as the leg slowly slid into
the arms of the pale, gaunt man in the shroud, who at once made away
with it, and tucked it out of sight under one of the guns.
“Surgeon Sawyer,” now said Cuticle, courteously turning to the surgeon
of the Mohawk, “would you like to take up the arteries? They are quite
at your service, sir.”
“Do, Sawyer; be prevailed upon,” said Surgeon Bandage.
Sawyer complied; and while, with some modesty he was conducting the
operation, Cuticle, turning to the row of assistants said, “Young
gentlemen, we will now proceed with our Illustration. Hand me that
bone, Steward.” And taking the thigh-bone in his still bloody hands,
and holding it conspicuously before his auditors, the Surgeon of the
Fleet began:
“Young gentlemen, you will perceive that precisely at this
spot—_here_—to which I previously directed your attention—at the
corresponding spot precisely—the operation has been performed. About
here, young gentlemen, here”—lifting his hand some inches from the
bone—“about _here_ the great artery was. But you noticed that I did not
use the tourniquet; I never do. The forefinger of my steward is far
better than a tourniquet, being so much more manageable, and leaving
the smaller veins uncompressed. But I have been told, young gentlemen,
that a certain Seignior Seignioroni, a surgeon of Seville, has recently
invented an admirable substitute for the clumsy, old-fashioned
tourniquet. As I understand it, it is something like a pair of
_calipers_, working with a small Archimedes screw—a very clever
invention, according to all accounts. For the padded points at the end
of the arches”—arching his forefinger and thumb—“can be so worked as to
approximate in such a way, as to—but you don’t attend to me, young
gentlemen,” he added, all at once starting.
Being more interested in the active proceedings of Surgeon Sawyer, who
was now threading a needle to sew up the overlapping of the stump, the
young gentlemen had not scrupled to turn away their attention
altogether from the lecturer.
A few moments more, and the top-man, in a swoon, was removed below into
the sick-bay. As the curtain settled again after the patient had
disappeared, Cuticle, still holding the thigh-bone of the skeleton in
his ensanguined hands, proceeded with his remarks upon it; and having
concluded them, added, “Now, young gentlemen, not the least interesting
consequence of this operation will be the finding of the ball, which,
in case of non-amputation, might have long eluded the most careful
search. That ball, young gentlemen, must have taken a most circuitous
route. Nor, in cases where the direction is oblique, is this at all
unusual. Indeed, the learned Henner gives us a most remarkable—I had
almost said an incredible—case of a soldier’s neck, where the bullet,
entering at the part called Adam’s Apple—”
“Yes,” said Surgeon Wedge, elevating himself, “the _pomum Adami_.”
- title
- Chunk 6