Surgical Anatomy. By John Maclise, Surgeon. Part 1. Lea
& Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1850. Quarto, pp. 40, with 16
colored plates.
This is an admirable reprint of a deservedly popular London
publication. Its English prototype, although not yet completed,
has already won its way, amongst our British brethren, to a re-
markable success.
Mr. Maclise was previously known as the joint editor of a large
work on the Surgical Anatomy of the Arteries, and as the author of
a rather transcendental volume on Comparative Osteology ; but
his last production has evidently been the labor of his especial
love. It is the one, at all events, upon which he may safely rest
his fame as a most accomplished teacher of a branch of anatomical
demonstration, which, whether in its medical or surgical relations,
still needs much more elucidation than it generally receives in the
systematic courses of the schools. His rare talents as an artist,
combined with his attainments as a demonstrator and a surgeon, have
enabled him to present a series of illustrations, which, as a whole,
are decidedly superior to any that have hitherto appeared.
In guarantee of the anatomical accuracy of these illustrations,
their author tells us in his preface, that they were made by him-
self, from his “ own dissections, first planned at the London Uni-
versity College, and afterwards realized at the Ecole Pratique, and
School of Anatomy adjoining the Hospital La Pitie, Paris.”
With such opportunities and qualifications, we are not surprised
at the result in his hands. His artist’s eye and mind seem to have
aided his surgical ideas, in suggesting a material improvement in
the mode of exhibiting the relative anatomy of different parts.
We give his own brief account of this improvement in another ex-
tract from the preface.
“ The unbroken surface of the human figure, is as a map to the
surgeon, explanatory of the anatomy arranged beneath ; and I have
therefore left appended to the dissected regions as much of the
undissected as was necessary. My object was to indicate the in-
terior through the superficies, and thereby illustrate the whole
living body which concerns surgery, through its dissected d^ad
counterfeit.”
Instead, in other words, of two or three confused and compli-
cated displays of a difficult region, such as we find in the works
of Velpeau, Blandin, Morton and others, he gives us, in a succes-
sion of views, the different stages of the demonstration, retaining,
at the same time, as much of the undissected frame as may be
needed, to make the whole intelligible at a glance, to the prac-
tised student. We have thus an opportunity of comparing, not
only the superficial with the deep seated anatomy, but, what is
often quite as important although less frequently thought of, the
anatomy of the exterior form with that of the regions which it
conceals from view. In short, we are happy to remark that the
whole study of physical exploration, in its medical as well as
surgical relations, is treated in a manner which must essentially
facilitate the progress of any one who will take the trouble to
verify his own dissections with a careful examination of these
plates.
The English copy was issued in folio fasciculi, each containing
four plates and eight pages of commentaries and descriptions.
The American is a very elegant and faithful imitation of its
London original, in every thing but the form. This, for the sake
of convenience, has been changed into a quarto, to be published
in four parts, each containing sixteen figures on separate plates,,
and sixty-four pages of handsome letter-press.
The first two plates are devoted to the form of the thoracic cavity,
and the position of the lungs, heart and larger blood-vessels. Plates
three and four, exhibit the surgical form of the superficial cervical
and facial regions, and the relative positions of the principal blood-
vessels, nerves, &c. The third two present us with the deep cer-
vical and facial regions, with their principal vessels, nerves, &c.
in relative position. In the fourth two are shown the surgical
dissection of the sub-clavian and carotid regions, and the relative
anatomy of their contents. Plates nine and ten display the sterno-
clavicular or tracheal region, with the relative position of vessels,
nerves, &c. In eleven and twelve we have the axillary and brachial
regions; in thirteen and fourteen, comparative views of the male
and female axillee; and in plates fifteen and sixteen, the part con-
cludes with the relative anatomy of the bend of the elbow and the
forearm.
The commentaries are generally clear and to the purpose, and
afford many useful surgical suggestions, although they are un-
happily disfigured here and there with some peculiarities of style
and language which savor strongly of the author’s transcendental
predilections. Still it is to be remembered, that the book is essen-
tially one of illustration, and that, as such, it has little to fear from
immaterial shortcomings in its literary matter, so long as its plates
can boast a superiority that places them almost beyond the reach
of competition.
We are too well pleased to enjoy them in their native garb, to
quarrel with the few minor whims of phraseology with which they
may happen to be burthened, And we feel too thankful to the
Philadelphia publishers for their very handsome reproduction of
the whole work, and at a rate within every body’s reach, not to
urge all our medical friends to give it, for their own sakes, the
cordial welcome it deserves, in a speedy and extensive circulation.