Restauration complete du nez, d'apr?s la m?thode de M. Dieffenbach

EARLY PLASTIC SURGERY, PERFORMED BY THE FOUNDER OF PLASTIC SURGERY

DEDICATION COPY OF AN ILLUSTRATED CASE STUDY

8vo (20.6 x 13.4 cm), pp. 1-7, p. 8 (blank), (2) ff. of lithograph plates. Bound in modern burgundy diced pasteboards, gilt title label laid to spine, retains original blue paper front wrapper. Very minor rubbing to board edges. Final text leaf a bit toned, otherwise internally very well preserved.

Rare dedication copy of an early illustrated offprint on plastic surgery. This study by Dr. Verhaeghe of Ostend describes a rhinoplasty operation carried out in July of 1845 or 1846 by the renowned Berlin physician Johann Friederich Dieffenbach (1792-1847), who was then in residence at Ostend. Dieffenbach, whose maxillofacial and rhinoplastic surgery techniques are considered to be the foundation of modern reconstructive surgery, used a segment of skin from the patient's forehead to reshape his nose. Lithograph illustrations here show the patient before the operation, and at 3 days, 20 days, and 3 months after the surgery.

The present volume carries on its front wrapper a dedication inscription by Verhaeghe in which he pays 'hommage' to a Professor Récamier, likely the celebrated Paris gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774-1852). Récamier would have known Verhaeghe and Dieffenbach not only from their important collaboration on strabismus (crossed-eye) operations, but also from their work in gynecology (ruptured female perinea).

* J. S. Davis, Plastic Surgery: Its Principles and Practice, p. 11; Bulletin de l'Académie royal de medicine de Belgique, vol. 12, p. 574; Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 3, pp. 641-3; S. M. Lamb, "Johann Friedrich Dieffenbacj: The Many-Sided Odysseus," Arch. Facial. Plast. Surg. (2003), vol. 5, no. 3., pp. 276-77.