Volume 1

Cooper's dictionary of practical surgery and encyclopaedia of surgical science.

  • Samuel Cooper
Date:
1861-1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cooper's dictionary of practical surgery and encyclopaedia of surgical science. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. The last edition of Gooper's Surgical Dictionary appeared under the auspices of its laborious and talented author, who devoted, with unprecedented ardour, a whole life to the production and perfection of his favourite work. His great abilities and untiring energy enabled him, in seven successive editions, spread over a period of nine~and- twenty years, to present to the world an epitome of surgical science unrivalled, as the production of one man, for its accuracy, for its great research, and for the amount of information it has been the means of accumulating and disseminating for the last half century, amongst surgeons in this country, and throughout the civilised world. In the preface to his seventh and last edition, Mr. Cooper thus writes of him- self and his labours: — ' The utility of this Dictionary to students and all classes of medical practitioners, has obtained for it in this country a larger share of patronage than perhaps was ever conferred upon any other book of Surgery; while its translation into the French, German, and Italian languages, and several republications of it in America, may be taken as proofs of its being deemed worthy of considerable notice in various parts of the world. In preparing this edition, which comprehends an account of all the principal modern improvements in Surgery, I have conscientiously en- deavoured to deal fairly and impartially with every individual whose name I have had occasion to mention, or whose suggestions form sub- jects of consideration, in the ensuing pages. My aim has been Truth,, wherever I could find her; and in every situation where any glimpse of licr beautiful figure presented itself, I have ardently courted her, regard- less of the name, school, or country on which she might deign to shed her glory. By steadily adhering to this principle; by zealously mark- ing what the book of nature and the field of experience unfolded; by renouncing all obsequious submission to every otlier kind of authority ; and by taking the liberty of sometimes thinking and judging for myself; I trust that the most likely plan has been adopted of maintaining the character of this book, and raising my own reputation. Mr. Cooper adds the following quotation from the preface of D^. Reese's American edition of the Dictionary : —