AMPUTATION

the cutting off of a limb or projecting part of the body, sometimes nece ary in order to prevent the mortification or disease of that part poisoning or exhausting the whole body. There are three inventions which have made a. safer and more readily resorted to than in previous centuries. These are the tourniquet, to stop the flow of blood in the arteries; an zsthetic, to procure painle ne ; and antiseptics, to prevent infection of the wound. The objects of a. are primarily to remove a dangerously diseased or injured part, and then to leave a stump which may be as useful and as free from pain as po ible to the patient.