Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2311

RENE LERICHE (1879-1955) The surgery of pain. Williams & Wilkins 1939 xix, 512 pp., illus., plates. 21.2 cm.

Leriche, an internationally known French physician, was the first surgeon to be named to the chair of experimental medicine at the Collège de France. The premier chair in France, it had been held by such famed individuals as Claude Bernard, Magendie, Brown-Séquard, and Charles Nicolle before Leriche was named in 1937. Although this is the most prestigious chair in France, the incumbent is not provided with clinical facilities in Paris, so Leriche operated at the American Hospital at Neuilly for the remaining years of his career. The occupant of the chair was required to deliver and publish a series of lectures each year and this was the first publication to result from his lectures. The book had its background in Leriche's experiences with the control of pain and surgery of the autonomic nervous system during World War I. He presents a comprehensive study of pain and its treatment in various diseases, and includes an excellent discussion of pain as an abstract concept. Initially published in French, the book went through three editions and was translated into several foreign languages. It is here translated for the first time into English by Archibald Young (1873-1939), Regius professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow.

Cited references: Cushing L177 (French ed., 1937); Waller 5730 (French ed., 1940)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.