[BASICS OF FIELD SURGERY] Grundzüge der allgemeinen Kriegschirurgie [i.e. Basics of General Military Field Surgery]
Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1864. Item #69
[4], 1168, [1] pp. 8vo. Contemporary quarter-leather binding with a blind-stamped title on the spine and sprinkled edges. Covers rubbed, pre-revolutionary library label on front endpapers. Otherwise fine.
The first edition of the major work on field surgery by one of the greatest military surgeons.
Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810-1881), the world-famous Russian surgeon, is considered a founder of contemporary surgery and topographical anatomy, the pioneer of the use of plaster bandages and etherization in field hospitals. Ivan Pavlov credited him with placing surgery on a scientific footing.
The German edition predates the Russian. Pirogov's Grundzuge quickly became the standard reference work. The book describes the development of field hospitals and field surgery, scrutinising issues such as triaging and medevac, and the classification of traumas. It was based on his experiences in the Crimean War in 1853-1856 during which he introduced the mass use of ether in surgical operations at the front, and used plaster casts and women nurses.
In this book, Pirogov developed the basic principles of field surgery. The first principle states that war is a traumatic epidemic. The second states that properties of injuries, mortality and the success of treatment depend mainly on the nature of the weapons used and especially on the effects of gunshot shells. And the third fundamental principle that administration rather than medicine plays the major part in helping the wounded and sick in the theater of war.
Price: $1,000.00