Operative Surgery

In our notice of the first two volumes of this work we commented on its general plan and scope, which limits it entirely to a description of operative technique and disarms criticism of omissions by the statement that only the common operations are dealt with. In our opinion the author would have done better to have given us the benefit of his own personal experience, instead of compiling an encyclopaedia of all the methods which have been described and used, many of them of historical interest only. As a work of reference, however, the book is very complete, and though the surgeon will have to make his choice in the light of his own experience, he will rarely fail to find a clear and excellently illustrated account of the available operations. Vol. Ill deals with operations upon the eye, ear, nose and throat, the upper air passages, neck, thyroid and thymus glands, tongue, breast, thoracic wall and lungs. The wisdom of including such special branches as eye and nose operations in a work on general surgery may well be doubted. There are important omissions in