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Can you imagine surgery on your body without a local or general anesthetic? Just writing that question makes me wince! Yet, until the 1800s, surgery was always done that way. No wonder people feared surgery – it must have often, unless it was quite minor, killed the patient. Masters of the Scalpel: The Story of Surgery by Sarah R. Riedman tells the story of the progress of surgery over history via the story of some great surgeons and great advances.
The conception and development of anesthesia is certainly one such example, along with the realization that surgery must be done in very clean environments in order to prevent infection. Learning human anatomy – where all the parts are located and how they are interrelated and how they are linked to disease – was not easy in the early days. And yet how crucial it is for the surgeon to know what he or she is doing.
The book was written in the early 1960s, so it misses all the incredible advances that have been made in the last 60 years. But it provides a great foundation for understanding and appreciating the most modern advances by showing the critical parts of surgery and how our expertise has been gradually built over the years.
As an aside, the Jungle Doctor books by Paul White tell the true story of a missionary surgeon in Tanzania in the 1930s. You will better appreciate all the difficulties that Dr. White faced if you read the Jungle Doctor books only after you have read Masters of The Scalpel
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