John Erichsen's Science and Art of Surgery
of 1859, was the 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.
Sir John Eric Erichsen, 1st Baronet (19
July 1818 - 23 September 1896) was a British surgeon, born in Copenhagen. He
studied medicine at University College, London, and at Paris, devoting himself
in the early years of his career to physiology, and lecturing on general anatomy
and physiology at University College hospital. His Science and Art of Surgery
(1853) went through many editions. and was the most popular military
surgery manual during the American Civil War. He rose to be president of the
College of Surgeons in 1880. From 1879 to 1881 he was president of the Royal
Medical and Chirurgical Society. As a surgeon his reputation was world-wide, and
he counts (says Sir W. MacCormac in his volume on the Centenary of the Royal
College of Surgeons) among the makers of modern surgery. He died at Folkestone
in 1896
"The most popular text-book on the
subject for many years. Erichsen was surgeon to University College Hospital,
London, and Lister served as his house surgeon." "Editions from the 2nd London
edition were 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). Wyndham Miles writes, in his History of the National Library of Medicine
(p. 18), that 5370 copies of Erichsen's book--presumably the 1860 edition--were
purchased by the government for distribution during the Civil War.
"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. There was no
man in the profession whose opinion in a difficult case was more justly held to
be of great weight. . . . He had, in his earlier days at least, no English
superior as a clinical teacher. Lord Lister, Sir Henry Thompson, and Marcus Beck
were amongst his house surgeons, and he may be looked upon as one of the makers
of modern surgery. As a man he possessed a most attractive character. He was
honorable and candid in all the relations of life, a generous friend, a
gentleman in every sense of the word, of peculiar affability and courtliness of
manner. Richard Quain had long refused to speak to him on the ground that he,
although senior, had been passed over in favor of Erichsen, a junior, in the
appointment to the Chair of Surgery at University College, but Sir John
Erichsen's patience and conduct at length convinced Quain of the injustice of
his attitude. To everyone's surprise the two men one day entered the hospital
arm-in-arm. He was very successful in his profession and he owed much of this to
a happy combination of good qualities. His work occupied a high place in
surgical literature, and he was always ready to accept the surgical advances of
younger men. He was a distinguished teacher in a school where many distinguished
surgeons had preceded him. If he did not strike out any new path in the field of
surgery, he possessed a sound judgment enlightened by a long experience, had
much administrative talent, a wise eloquence, dignity of presence, and elevation
of view" (Plarr's: Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, Vol. I, pp. 379-80).
