Elements of Surgical Diagnosis

Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea's Son & Co., 1884. First American Edition, 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near fine. Very scarce, very near fine first American edition of a classic medical work still in print in revised editions. Bookplate & previous owner's 1884 inscription on first free endpaper. Red boards and red painted edges. 4 & 1/4 x 6 & 1/2 inches tall. 584 pp. incl. index. Elements of Surgical Diagnosis. By A. PEARCE Gould, M. S., M. B. Lond., F. R. C. S. Eng., Assistant Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, etc. Pp. 584. London: Cassell & Company. 1884. A work on surgical diagnosis is of the same use to the clinical student as demonstrations of anat omy are to the anatomical. Systematic text-books are excellent in their way, but for the beginner they are too descriptive and not sufficiently di rective. Mr. Gould has supplied a guide to diagnosis which is sure to be immensely popular with students, for in addition to the careful arrange ment and skilful comparison of facts, the text is written in good style—a by no means easy task where a large amount of information has to be compressed into a comparatively small space. Some of the pages show traces of what may be termed writing against time, notably those of the first chapter, which treats of the general features and landmarks of surgical cases. There is in consequence a certain want of accuracy and con sistency—e.g., at page 19 we read that the “difference between local lividity from obstruction and that from venous hyperaemia without obstruc tion, such as is seen in the final stages of inflam mation. . . . . is " etc. Such a statement is scarcely on all fours with our knowledge of the vascular changes in inflammation, for it is generally con ceded that the type of “hyperaemia with obstruc tion" is reached “in the final stages of inflamma tion.” Nor can we subscribe to the assertion that “all active hyperaemia is always attended with pain," seeing that the physiological phenomena of blushing, and flushing of secreting glands dur ing activity, are instances of painless fulness of the vessels. Notwithstanding these defects, which in a great measure are inseparable from a first edition, the book is one of conspicuous merit, and will be sure to meet with the support it undenia bly deserves. The text is divided into forty-four chapters. The first four treat of the general diagnosis of wounds, of injuries other than wounds, and of the constitutional effects of operations, etc. Chap ters W. to XIV. are occupied with an account of injuries of the chief regions of the body. Then comes a carefully detailed description of the more salient features of pulsating, fluctuating and other swellings. Upwards of two hundred pages are devoted to the elucidation of the problems per taining to the surgery and pathology of the more important situations, organs and structures. We do not hesitate to say that Mr. Gould’s “Elements" is unique in its excellence. -- The London Lancet, 1884