No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
There is adequate discussion of the diagnostic problems in each case, and the operative procedures recommended are clearly described and well illustrated by line drawings.
A particularly good section is that on reconstructive surgery of the bile-ducts. The work covers the whole field, including rarities such as biliary-bronchial fistula, but though it lays down clearly how the various conditions are to be treated there are no references to the literature. This is not intended as adverse criticism, for in a practical handbook an extensive bibliography might be considered out of place.
For such a small book the price would seem to us in England to be rather high, but considering the number of illustrations the high cost of production is understandable. Surgical Forum. Proceedings of the Forum Sessions Thirty-eighth Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons, New York City, September, 1952. 68 x 9: in. Pp. 716 + xxxvi. Illustrated. 1953. Philadelphia and London : W. B. Saunders Co.
50s. ANY critic of the laboratory approach to surgery who regards experimental surgery as not surgery at all and not very good physiology either, can tind a full answer to his criticisms and a full justification for the use of scientific methods in dealing with the problems of surgical technique and the management of surgical patients, in this beautifully produced volume of short papers given at the I952 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. Furthermore, it may be pointed out that about one-third of the arucles deal directly with clinical and therapeutic investigations.
The subjects cover many fields of surgery, the gastrointestinal tract, the cardiovascular system, the lungs, liver and pancreas, shock and water balance and electrolytes all featuring prominently in the list of contents. One cannot help noticing, therefore, the small amount of attention which is paid to the kidney and genito-urinary tract, the locomotor system, the nervous system, and the endocrine system, but this may be merely another indication of the subdivision of surgical interest into specialties. It seems a pity, however, if these subjects are deliberately excluded for this reason, because it is difficult in practice to dissociate the systems, however interest may be concentrated upon one of them, and they cannot be dissociated in the laboratory without risking the misinterpretation of experimental results.
This book is a mine of information and should be available to all practising surgeons. I t must be an essential addition to the library of every surgical department which is striving to maintain a high standard of work.
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