Percival, one of the most eminent surgeons of his day, was born in London in 1713, and received his education at Darton in Kent. His friends wished him to enter the church; but a decided bias led him to devote himself to surgery. Apprenticed in 1729, to Mr Nourse of St Bartholomew's Hospital, he learned the first principles of his profession. Appointed in 1749 as one of the principal surgeons of the same institution, he had abundant scope for testing and correcting these principles. His knowledge became so great that, in 1756, on being laid aside from practice in consequence of a severe compound fracture of the leg, he appeared in print as a great surgical reformer. As his various works came out, they promulgated many new and valuable opinions, the results of extensive experience, unwearyed zeal, and skilful observation. His Treatise on Ruptures, Svo, London, 1756, soon became a standard work. His dissertation On Injuries in the Head, 8vo, 1760, was unrivalled for its originality and methodical perspicuity. His paper On Amputation, 8vo, 1778, clearly determined and specified those cases in which that method of cure was proper and necessary. In fact, he greatly simplified the art of surgery by limiting the employment of severe and extreme operations, and by trusting more to the healing virtue of nature. Before his death in 1788 he saw