Civil War Era Military Surgical Manuals

Surgical and Medical Texts

Civil War Medical Books

Authors: John Erichsen, Samuel Gross, F. W. Sargent, Richard D. Hoblyn

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Note: The following medical and surgical texts were used immediately before or during the Civil War.  They are a window into a medical education as it was presented to the students and surgeons who served in the War.  There were a multitude of medical colleges in the late 1850's and 60's, as well as publishers who sold medical textbooks from American, English and French authors.

The Science and Art of Surgery, (1859), by John Erichsen, M.D.

A copy of this text book is listed in the 1864 and 1865 Surgeon General's Office Library Catalogues and the list of medical textbooks which were published during the Civil War by the Army Medical Department.

John Erichsen's Science and Art of Surgery of 1859, was a major medical text given to the surgical and medical staff during the Civil War. The book went thru 10 different editions and was translated into 15 different languages.

Contains information on surgical procedures, gunshot wounds, amputations, and other treatments.  Used extensively during and prior to the Civil War to train surgeons.  Two editions are in this collection: 1859, 1860, both of which would have been used before and during the Civil War.

Additional information: on John Erichsen, M. D.

See an 1865 receipt for purchase of this book by a Civil War assistant surgeon.

ERICHSEN JOHN; Professor of Surgery in University College London.   THE SCIENCE AND ART OF SURGERY being a Treatise on the subject of Injuries Diseases and Operations -Morton 5602 (citing 1st London ed., 1853): "Erichsen was surgeon to University College Hospital, London, and Lister served as his house surgeon." "published by Blanchard & Lea, of Philadelphia, in 1859, and again in 1860, and a copy was issued by the American Government to every medical officer in the Federal Army during the American Civil War" (Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Vol. I, p. 380).

Discussion of this text by the publisher: Blanchard & Lea in 1860.  996 pp; 417 figs.

 

The Science and Art of Surgery, (1860), by John Erichsen, M.D., marked for U.S.A. Hosp. Dept., Civil War issue by the Army Hosp. Dept.

Wyndham Miles writes, in his History of the National Library of Medicine (p. 18), that 5,370 copies of Erichsen's book--presumably the 1860 edition were purchased by the government for distribution during the Civil War. Only Freeman Bumstead's Pathology and Treatment of Venereal Diseases was purchased in a larger quantity! "As a surgeon Sir John Erichsen's reputation was world-wide. His strong faculty was his sound judgment ripened by a vast experience which gave him an almost unrivalled clinical insight.

Discussion of this text by the publisher: Blanchard & Lea in 1860.  996 pp; 417 figs.

Gross's System of Surgery, Vol. 1 & 2, ( 1859, first edition), (1864 third edition), (1867 fourth post-War edition), by Samuel Gross, M.D., as taught before, during, and immediately after the Civil War at Jefferson Medical School

A copy of this text book is listed in the 1864 and 1865 Surgeon General's Office Library Catalogues and the list of medical textbooks which were published during the Civil War by the Army Medical Department.

Additional information on: Samuel Gross, M.D.

 

GROSS SAMUEL D MD, Professor of Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia an enlarged edition. January 1862   A SYSTEM OF SURGERY Pathological Diagnostic Therapeutic and Operative.   Illustrated by twelve hundred and twenty seven engravings, this Second edition is much enlarged and carefully revised.  In two large and beautifully printed octavo volumes of about twenty two hundred pages strongly bound in leather with raised bands.  Price $12.00.  

 

The work is so superior to its predecessors in extent as well as in illustrations and of publication that we can honestly recommend it as the best work of the kind to be taken home by the young practitioner. Am Med Journal, 1862

1867 forth edition, post-Civil War with revisions

Minor Surgery, Bandaging, and Operations of Minor Surgery, (1848 first edition), by F. W. Sargent, M.D.

A copy of this text book is listed in the 1864 and 1865 Surgeon General's Office Library Catalogues and the list of medical textbooks which were published during the Civil War by the Army Medical Department.

Additional information on: F. William Sargent

F. WILLIAM SARGENT, MD; ON BANDAGING AND OTHER OPERATIONS OF MINOR SURGERY,  New edition with an additional chapter on Military Surgery One, in handsome 7 x 5 inches of nearly 400 pages with 184 wood cuts Leather $1 50

The value of this work as a handy and convenient manual for surgeons engaged in active duty in the field and hospital has induced the publishers to render it more complete for those purposes by the addition of a chapter on gun shot wounds and other mailers peculiar to military surgery. 

Sargent's manual on Minor Surgery was adopted by the U.S. Army Medical Department in the Civil War.  Containing sections on but not limited to:

Instruments Used in dressing; irrigation of wounds; Bandages and their application; Fractures; Apparatus used in treating fractures; Dislocations; Bloodletting; Methods of arresting hemorrhage; Administration of injections; Inhalation of sulphuric ether and chloroform.  The manual was one of the first to have a section on the methods of anesthesia.

Sargent, F.W. On Bandaging and Other Operations of Minor Surgery. Philadelphia, Lea and Blanchard, 1848. 1st Edition, 1st Printing. Original full leather binding. 1848.  Published shortly after the discovery of anesthesia, and was the first medical text to address the use of ether in surgery. This 1848 first edition is quite uncommon.

Discussion of the text by publisher: Blanchard & Lea in 1860.

Minor Surgery, Bandaging and Operations of Minor Surgery, by F. W. Sargent, M. D. (1862 second edition with an additional chapter on military surgery by W. F. Atlee, M.D.)  Contains 187 illustrations.

A copy of this text book is listed in the 1864 and 1865 Surgeon General's Office Library Catalogues or the list of medical textbooks which were published during the Civil War by the Army Medical Department.

Additional information: on F. William Sargent and John Atlee

 

Discussion of the text by the publisher: Blanchard & Lea in 1860.

 

The owner signature in the front of the text is by a James Moore, Jan. 9th, 1864.  In the Roster of Surgeon's, there are three James (Jas.) Moore's listed, but only one who may have come from the New York area.   This book was purchased from a small book seller in Manhasset, New York .  One of the above referenced James Moore  is listed in the Roster section under U. S. Colored Troops as Jas. O. Moore, assistant surgeon, from January, 1864, which would coincide with the date listed in the front of this text book.   He was shown to have been in the U. S. Colored Troops  Twenty Second Infantry Regiment, which was mustered out in October 16, 1865.  There is also a James Moore, graduated from Univ. of the City of N.Y. in 1864.

Drawings from Sargent's text book on Minor Surgery

A Dictionary of Terms Used in Medicine, (1865, revised), by Richard D. Hoblyn

HOBLYN RICHARD, MD.  A DICTIONARY OF THE TERMS USED IN MEDICINE AND THE COLLATERAL SCIENCES, A new American edition revised with numerous additions by Isaac Hays, MD, editor of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences. In one large royal 12mo volume leather of over 500 double columned pages. 

To both practitioner and student we recommend this dictionary as being convenient in size accurate in definition and sufficiently full and complete for ordinary consultation. Charleston Med Journal.  

Discussion of the text by the publisher: Blanchard & Lea in 1863

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See information on Medical education and lecture cards during and before the Civil War