Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1677

JOSEPH PANCOAST (1805-1882) A treatise on operative surgery. Carey and Hart for G. N. Loomis 1844 380 pp., 80 leaves of plates. 31.5 cm.

Born in nearby New Jersey, Pancoast spent his entire professional career in Philadelphia. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and served as physician and visiting surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital and Pennsylvania Hospital. He became professor of surgery, and later anatomy, at Jefferson Medical College in 1838, where he remained until his retirement in 1874. Pancoast was recognized as one of the leading surgeons of his day and was known as a skillful operator, an accomplished medical writer, and a popular teacher of surgical anatomy. He was noted for his ability in plastic and reconstructive surgery and was one of the first American surgeons to devise an operation for exstrophy of bladder which employed plastic abdominal flaps. Other successes include thoracentesis for empyema, reconstruction of the eyebrow, excision of soft and mixed cataracts, tenotomy for strabismus, and a neurosurgical procedure for sectioning the fifth cranial nerve to relieve tic douloureux. He contributed regularly to the leading medical journals and was responsible for three editions of Wistar's System of anatomy (see No. 1175) as well as four editions of Quain's A series of anatomical drawings (see No. 1550). The present work is his major medical monograph and went through three editions, the last in 1852. It was, according to the Advertisement, "a work that shall represent, so far as its limits will allow, the operative surgery of the day." It succeeded admirably and was an unsurpassed resource for the student and practicing surgeon, because Pancoast went to great effort to insure that the plates and text would be as instructive as possible. The section on plastic surgery was one of the most extensive, detailed, and important of the period. The eighty lithographic plates are well-executed and provide graphic and accurate depictions of the operations described in the text.

See Related Record(s): 1175 1550

Cited references: Cushing P38; Garrison-Morton 5598; Waller 7083

Gift of John Martin, M.D.