Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition.

About this book

The Manual of Surgery, Volume I: General Surgery, Sixth Edition (1921) is a comprehensive textbook for civil surgeons, edited by the Edinburgh professors Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles. Its opening pages set the work’s purpose: to distill the lessons of wartime experience into a concise reference for everyday practice, while omitting the detailed operative techniques that appear in a companion volume. The text begins with a clear statement of the surgeon’s ultimate goals, prolonging life and alleviating suffering, followed by a systematic exposition of tissue repair, from primary union to granulation and cicatricial processes. The authors emphasize the universal mechanisms of healing, the varying regenerative capacities of different tissues, and the importance of preventing infection, foreign bodies, and undue movement. The book is organized into numbered chapters covering repair, inflammation, infection, tumours, injuries, and the anatomy of vessels, nerves, and musculoskeletal structures, each illustrated with numerous plates.

Written in the formal, didactic style of early‑20th‑century British medical literature, the manual reflects the language and conventions of its era, Latin terminology, Basle anatomical nomenclature, and a measured, authoritative tone. It will appeal to historians of medicine, collectors of classic surgical texts, and readers who appreciate a meticulous, illustration‑rich presentation of surgical principles as they were taught in the post‑World‑War I period. Those seeking a scholarly glimpse into the foundations of modern surgical thought will find its detailed chapters and extensive visual material both informative and engaging.