Gross, System of Surgery, 1866
A System of Surgery; Pathological, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Operative. By Samuel D. Gross, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia; Late Surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital; Member of the Imperial Royal Medical Society of Vienna, Etc. Etc. Illustrated by Upwards of Thirteen Hundred Engravings. Fourth Edition. Carefully Revised and Improved. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. 1866.
Two thick, large, octavo volumes in original full brown leather with gilt, raised bands, and black labels on spines. Scattered superficial cracking and scuffing of leather. Mild shelf wear. One 3 x 2 inch area on front board of volume II where leather is gouged and bosselated. Joints and hinges strong. Two rear end papers blind embossed by a bookseller at some point. A few pencil annotations on end papers. Signature of John A Bitting MD on front paste down of vol II. Small lacuna near top of vol II ffep. Mild toning, particularly around edges of titles. Otherwise, clean, bright, and tight throughout. Top corner of xix to 60 in vol 2 creased. One signature just barely starting, but still very secure, in vol II.
Vol 1: Ffep, title – xxxi (3) 35-1049 (3 blank pages) 32 (of ads), blank, rfep.
Vol 2: Ffep, title – xxviii, 17-1087, blank, rfep (no content lacking, per index, despite pagination starting with 17)
Samuel Gross (1805 – 1884) was the most famous surgeon in the USA in his day. His System of Surgery (first published 1859, G-M 5607) went through many editions. It remains a classic. He also published the second book on pathological anatomy (1839, G-M 2292) to be published in America. It was the first exhaustive treatment of the subject in the English language. He was Professor of General Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathological Anatomy at Cincinnati Medical College. He also published the first systematic study of foreign bodies in air passages (G-M 3264), the first American treatise on orthopedics (G-M 4316.1, which he comments on in his autobiography), and an important work on autopsy findings in strangulation, and provided guidelines for medical examiners investigating strangulation cases (G-M 1737). Gross was also a robust medical historian. His autobiography is a treasury of 19th century American medicine and surgery.
Heirs 1680: “Gross taught at Louisville from 1840 until 1856 when he returned to the Jefferson Medical College. He wanted very much to write the present work and greatly restricted his private practice, limiting himself to teaching and surgical operations. As a result he was able to devote long hours to his writing and completed his task three years later. He commented in the Preface that "The object of this work is to furnish a systematic and comprehensive treatise on the science and practice of surgery, considered in the broadest sense; one that shall serve the practitioner as a faithful and available guide in his daily routine of duty" (p. [v]). The work was received with great acclaim both in the United States and in Europe and by the time it had reached the sixth edition in 1882, it had been so thoroughly revised that it was essentially an entirely new book.”
