Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1933

GEORGE HUSBAND BAIRD MACLEOD (1828-1892) Notes on the surgery of the war in the Crimea. John Churchill 1862 xii, 13-403 pp., tables. 18.5 cm.

Macleod began his medical studies at Glasgow and continued them at London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna before returning to complete his degree at Glasgow in 1853. Following service in the Crimean War, he practiced in Glasgow, was professor of surgery in Anderson's College and succeeded Lister (see No. 1930) in the chair of surgery at Glasgow in 1869. He wrote the present work following his experiences in the Crimean War as a surgeon in the Civil Hospital at Smyrna and the General Hospital established at Sebastopol. The book first appeared in 1858 at London and has here been published for the first time in the United States. In the Preface Macleod remarked that "No account of the surgical results of the war in the Crimea has yet appeared. . . . These being written hurriedly from camp, were of course unrevised by the writer when going through the press, hence the existence in them of many errors. . . ." He also stated that "this great war has, unfortunately, added little to our medical knowledge. Its short duration prevented this; yet it has shown us wounds of a severity, perhaps, never before equaled; it has enabled us to observe the effects of missiles introduced for the first time into warfare . . ." (Preface, p. vii). Macleod discusses the geography and climatology of the Crimea, military hygiene in the field, the use of chloroform as an anesthetic, and the various wounds and injuries common on the battlefield, especially gunshot wounds.

See Related Record(s): 1930

Cited references: Cushing M47 (London ed., 1858); Waller 6121