Surgeon

One who applies the principles of the healing art to external diseases or injuries, or to internal Injuries or malformations, requiring manual or instrumental intervention.

One who practises surgery

This definition is imperfect, it being impossible to define the term surgeon or surgery. The term surgery, or chirurgery, comes from two Greek words signifying the hand and work, meaning a manual procedure by means of instruments, or otherwise, in the healing of injuries and the cure of disease. The practice of medicine, in contradistinction to the practice of surgery, denotes the treatment of disease by the administration of drugs or other sanative substances. There cannot be a complete separation between the practice of medicine and surgery, as they are developed by modern science, and understood by the most learned in the two professions; the principles of both are the same throughout, and no one is qualified to practise either who does not properly understand the fundamental principles of both. The general principles of law defining the civil responsibilities of physicians and surgeons are the same as those that apply to and govern the conduct of lawyers, shipbuilders, and other classes of men whose employment requires them to transact business demanding special skill and knowledge; Leighton v. Sargent, 27 N. H. 468, 59 Am. Dec. 3S8; Whart. & Stille, Med. Jur. 750.

See Physician.