A Short Manual of Surgical Operations

As well almost as could be done in the small space allotted to him, Mr. Barker has done his work. The book is a model of clear language, and of admirable arrangement. Traversing as wide a field as this book covers, very few surgeons in England could have written with an equal judgment and breadth and trustworthiness. Almost everywhere the author's work is personal; he speaks mostly of operations he has performed after having thoroughly worked them out. Any criticism we might offer arises almost of necessity from the fact that the author has attempted a task which, in respect of the surgery of to-day, it is probably impossible for one man to perform ; and certainly impossible for a dozen men to perform within the limits of a book of this size. So short are most of the descriptions of operations, that they could not be acted upon by the uneducated surgeon, while to the educated surgeon they can be little more than useful hints. No surgeon would dream of performing Oophorectomy, or Porro's Operation, or Splenectomy, or Cholecystotomy, or Enterectomy or Gastrostomy, or indeed any one of the major operations here described, if he had to depend on the meagre