Eight Chirurgical Treatises , on These Following Heads: (Viz.) I. Of Tumours. II. Of Ulcer. III. Of Diseases of the Anus. IV. Of the Kings-Evil. V. Of Wounds. VI. Of Gun-Shot Wounds. VII. Of Fracutures and Luxations. VIII. Of the Lues Venerea

Description:

4th edition. Richard Weisman (1622-1676) ranks in surgery as high as does Sydenham in medicine. He made many valuable contributions to the subject; he was the first to describe tuberculosis of the joints and he gave a good account of gunshot wounds gained on the battlefields of the English Civil War. He became surgeon to King Charles II in 1672. [Garrsion & Morton, 5573].

This work comprises of eight treatises concerning ulcers, tumours, diseases of the anus, king's evil (surgical tuberculosis), wounds, gunshot wounds, fractures and luxations, and lues venerea (syphilis and gonorrhoea) respectively. Immense expertise in traumatic surgery is particularly evident in his account of gunshot wounds, including severe compound limb fractures. For these he encouraged immediate amputation through sound flesh, using cautery or ligature as appropriate for haemorrhage; delayed amputation was not advised unless patients were free of fever and fit for operation. Wiseman's classic account of the king's evil - surgical tuberculosis, is enriched with 150 patient histories, including post-mortem studies. For each topic of the book, Wiseman examines the anatomy, pathology, etiology, diagnosis, prognosis and management, adding selected case histories or observations from his vast experience. These personal observations, some brief and some in extensive detail, concern 660 individual patients; these case histories constitute a rich and unique historical record of surgical reality in seventeenth-century Britain and have yet to be analysed fully. (ODNB)

Condition

Fo, cont. speckled panelled calf, rebacked, corners restored, new endpapers. Half-title page present. Marginal stain to pp A-G4. Minor foxing to the Table of Observations at rear. Very good copy. Ex-libris inkstamp of J.R. Kirkup FRCS to front pastedown. Kirkup is a retired orthopaedic surgeon with an interest in the history of medicine and historical surgical instruments. Kirkup wrote ‘The tercentenary of Richard Wiseman's “Severall chirurgicall treatises”’, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 59 (1977). He was honorary curator of the Hunterian Museum's instrument collection.