This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands,
And great Machaon, wounded, in his tent
Now wants the succor which so oft he lent."
Again he thus describes an operation:
"Patroclus cut the forky steel away;
While in his hand a bitter root he pressed,
The wound he washed and styptic juice infused;
The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow,
The wound to torture, and the blood to flow."
Contrast the tender mercies thus described with an incident occurring during one of the exciting experiences of Ambroise Paré, who one day, during a battle, saw three desperately wounded soldiers placed with their backs against a wall. An old campaigner inquired, "Can those fellows get well?" "No," answered Ambroise. Thereupon the old campaigner went up to them and cut all their throats, "sweetly and without wrath." Note, if you will, the expression, "sweetly and without wrath," since it implies a primitive form of humanity in providing euthanasia for the hopelessly wounded.