SURGEON TO ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL, LONDON
JOINT LECTURER ON SURGERY IN THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL
MEMBER OF THE COURT OF EXAMINERS OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF
SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, AND LATE ONE OF THE CONSULTING SURGEONS
TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN FIELD FORCE
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1901
TO
SURGEON-GENERAL W. D. WILSON
PRINCIPAL MEDICAL OFFICER TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN FIELD FORCE
THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
EMPLOYED IN SOUTH AFRICA
AND TO THE
CIVIL SURGEONS TEMPORARILY ATTACHED TO THAT CORPS
These Experiences are Dedicated
AS AN EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION
OF THE INVARIABLE KINDNESS AND SYMPATHY EXTENDED
TO THE AUTHOR
WITHOUT WHICH THE BOOK COULD NOT
HAVE BEEN WRITTEN
PREFACE
A word of explanation is perhaps necessary as to the form in which these experiences have been put together. The matter was originally collected with the object of sending a series of articles to the British Medical Journal. Various circumstances, however, of which the chief was the feeling that extending experience altered in many cases the views adopted at first sight, prevented the original intention from being carried into execution, and the articles, considerably expanded, are now published together.
As to the illustrative cases introduced in support of various statements made in the text, only those have been chosen from my notes which were under my own observation for a considerable time, and many of these have been brought up to date since my return to England. I have, as a rule, avoided the inclusion of cases seen cursorily, and few simple ones have been quoted since their character is sufficiently indicated in the text. These remarks seem necessary since the mode of selection has resulted in the inclusion of a number of cases of exceptional severity, and any attempt to draw statistical conclusions from them would be most misleading.
The first two chapters have been added with a view to affording some information, first, as to the conditions under which a great part of the surgical work was done, and, secondly, as to the mechanism and causation of the injuries, which would not readily be at hand in the case of the general surgical reader. For much of the information contained in Chapter II. I must express my indebtedness to the work of MM. Nimier and Laval, so frequently quoted.
The only other object of this Preface is to express my thanks to the many who have aided me in the task of amplifying the observations on which the articles are founded, and I think no writer ever received more sympathetic and kindly help in such particulars than the author.