Volume 1

The first lines of the practice of surgery designed as an introduction to students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners / By Samuel Cooper.

  • Cooper, Samuel, 1780-1848.
Date:
1819-1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first lines of the practice of surgery designed as an introduction to students, and a concise book of reference for practitioners / By Samuel Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/722 (page 11)
    PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. On presenting this work once more to the pro- fession, in (what I conceive to be) a very improved form, it is quite unnecessary to trouble the reader with a long and tedious preface. The book was originally written as an introduction to surgery, at a period when the want of such a publication was uni- versally acknowledged. Its plan was suggested by a perusal of Richter’s Elements of Surgery; and if I am rightly informed, the simple and convenient arrangement into General and Particular Surgical Subjects, adopted in imitation of the method selected by that distinguished Professor, is well spoken of by several excellent judges. The First Lines of the Practice of Surgery ‘have now passed through three editions, amounting to six thousand copies; a fact which speaks more strongly in favour of the useful- ness of the work, than any other arguments, which might here be urged. ‘The circumstance also of such patronage having been conferred, when the publi- cation was far less correct than it is at present, augurs very favourably for the success of this fourth edition, with which considerable pains have been taken. If the reader wishes to know what has been done for the improvement of the work, I must refer him to every chapter, and nearly every page in the volume for an answer, since to particularize all the changes in this place would be impossible. Let him turn especially to the table of contents, and to the dit- ferent chapters on Inflammation, Suppuration, Hectic Fever, Mortification, Burns, Effects of Cold, Wounds