THE SURGERY OF THE HEAD AND NECK

Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Company, 1898. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very good. The first textbook on the subject published in the United States. A native of Ohio, Lane (1828-1902) "ranks among the giants of nineteenth-century California medical history and education," according to historian John David Smith. He graduated from Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College in 1851, studied in Europe, served as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy for four years, then settled in San Francisco, where his uncle Elias A. Cooper had established the first medical college on the Pacific Coast. In 1870, Lane reorganized and took over leadership of his uncle's medical school; his extensive financial support led the school to be renamed as the Cooper Medical College in honor of his uncle. The school merged with Stanford University in 1909 (the Cooper campus in San Francisco served as the Stanford Medical School clinical campus until 1959). Ten years in the making, Lane's textbook was intended to be the first of a three-volume encyclopedia of surgery, but he died before the other volumes could be completed. Tall octavo: xxx, 10-1180 p. with 110 black-and-white illustrations. Original green cloth binding, with gilt stamping. The spine is lightly sun faded, with some minor edgewear; else very good.