“The student who has commenced his career during the last few years, can but form a faint idea of what it was to do or even to witness a severe surgical operation previous to 1847. Then the {{w|Operating theater|operating theatre}}, from the commencement to the end of the {{w|surgeon}}'s performances, was a scene of pain and terror. The spectator's mind was half occupied in preserving an exterior of pretended indifference, and the air was filled with the patient's screams of suffering or apprehension. Now the operating theatre is a quiet and noiseless room.”