New elements of operative surgery

VELPEAU, Alfred A. M. (1795-1867). New elements of operative surgery. . . . With an appendix of notes, by Granville Sharp Pattison (1792-1851). 8vo. xxxv [1], 912pp. Washington: Duff Green, 1835. 208 x 136 mm. Sheep c. 1835, a little rubbed, front hinge tender. Foxed and browned, as is common with American books of this period, but very good overall. 19th cent. signature of Clement C. Speiden on front endpaper.

First Edition in English of Garrison-Morton 5592, Velpeau's Nouveaux elements de medecine operatoire (1832). Velpeau's Nouveaux elements was the most comprehensive surgical treatise of mid-nineteenth century France; it included important sections on plastic operations, with important historical information and an original classification of the main plastic surgical procedures. Velpeau is remembered eponymically for his description of Velpeau's hernia (femoral hernia external to the great vessels), and for Velpeau's bandage, designed to support the arm in luxation or fracture of the clavicle. Pattison, who contributed the appendix of notes, was one of the foremost teachers of anatomy in the 19th century; see the DAB and Kelly & Burrage. Although the title-page to this translation calls for an atlas "of nearly three hundred engravings," none was ever published. Cordasco 30-0914.