Since the discovery of anaesthesia a little over 150 years ago, advances in surgery have had the drama and excitement of a novel. Here is the full, fascinating story of these advances discussed in an eminently readable book. In lively fashion the author describes such outstanding developments as the discovery of anaesthesia and the gradual evolution of the aseptic ritual. Surgery: An Historical Commentary is filled with absorbing accounts of surgical triumphs including the persistence of Lord Lister in the introduction of antisepsis; the role of Theodor Billroth in the development of abdominal surgery; the unmasking of appendicitis by the Harvard pathologist, Reginald Fitz, the brilliance of Harvey Cushing in establishing neurosurgery; the initiative of Sir Harold Gillies in making plastic surgery a speciality; and the work of Halsted in the surgery of hernia and cancer of the breast. The surgery of warfare is reviewed showing not only how it led to progress in civilian practice but also how lessons are all too easily forgotten. This revised and enlarged edition contains much new material particularly on abdominal surgery - the sphere of the 'general' surgeon - and a full bibliography of some 800 entries