The principles and practice of modern surgery

PREFACE.

A new work on Surgery enters a field of literature already rich in excellent books differing widely in plan and viewpoint. Fortunately nothing else is possible in representing so vast a subject, for it is obviously advantageous that the reader should have the benefit of the personal equation of his author as reflected in his knowledge, experience, and assimilation from the writings of others. When Surgery can be represented by a conventional and well-settled type of book it will have ceased to advance. There is still room for many a serious effort to place the subject before students and practitioners in a way to instruct from the beginning through to the operative and postoperative treatment. This has been the object of the present volume, upon which the author has brought to bear the experience of many years as a teacher and surgeon, and into which he has also endeavored to infuse the most advanced knowledge gleaned from the surgical literature of America and Europe.

To the extent of the author’s ability the work therefore represents the net Surgery of to-day, obsolete and obsolescent material having been excluded, and the pages being devoted to sound principles and practice, stated as clearly and succinctly as possible. The author has been free to employ illustrations wherever a point could be so explained to the eye. In the pictorial department utility and effectiveness have been considered of more importance than extreme and unusual cases. Simple drawings and even diagrams are often most instructive, and such have been accordingly liberally used.

With every effort at conciseness it has not been practicable to cover the subject in less than the equivalent of about fifteen hundred ordinary octavo pages. By adopting a larger form the publishers have presented this material in a convenient volume. In justification of the size of the work it should be borne in mind that its scope is very extensive, for it aims to cover the Principles as well as the Practice of Surgery, thus supplying the needs of students and general practitioners, and, the author hopes, also interesting his surgical confrères.

He takes this opportunity to extend his warmest acknowledgments to his fellow-collaborators of the Treatise on Surgery by American Authors, who on the exhaustion of the third edition most kindly consented to allow it to be succeeded by this individual work, placing their material and illustrations freely at his command. He also wishes to acknowledge the kindness of Dr. H. R. Gaylord, who has contributed certain material utilized in the chapter on Tumors, the assistance of Dr. E. R. McGuire, who has helped in many ways during the preparation of the book, and that of other colleagues who have furnished illustrations that are duly credited in their proper places.

R. P.

BUFFALO, N. Y. 1907.

CONTENTS.