Manipulative Surgery: Principles and Practice

This book will be welcomed by those who are forced to admit the successes of the bone-setters and who desire to read an authoritative account of manipulative methods by a skilled surgeon. The author deplores the obstinately conservative attitude of the medical profession towards manipulation and in this connection records with approval the reply of John Hunter to Sir Astley Cooper who reminded him that a year before, he had expressed a different opinion. Hunter's reply was "Very likely I did, I hope I grow wiser every year." The slow and painful rise of surgery is described, how in 1745 the surgeons of London were set free from their association with the old company, the " Masters of the Mystery and Commonalty of the Barbers and Surgeons of London" and how early in the nineteenth century the Royal College of Surgeons was founded. Hunter advocated movement of inflamed joints after the subsidence of acute symptoms, but a new school of thought was introduced by Hilton and Thomas who believed that rest could not be overdone. These