Excerpt from Surgical Diseases of the Chest

The wonderful progress of modern surgery has given an impetus to a production of special literature unheard of in the history of surgery, every organ of the abdominal cavity being the subject of at least one large and excellent treatise. It seems that the especially technical achievements of American surgeons, whose brilliancy has become most striking in ab dominal surgery, absorbed all interest and concentrated it upon the abdominal cavity. This may account for the fact that other cavities of the human body, especially the thoracic, are in spite of their immense importance treated as a quantit� n�gligeable.

Nothing illustrates this state better than the fact that up to the present there is only one special work on the surgery of the chest. It is from the illustrious pen of Stephen Paget, who must properly be considered one of the pioneers in this great field of practice. But since the publication of his book, which bears the date of June, 1896, three great factors have arisen which transformed the character of surgical work to such an extent that many traditions and theories had to be discarded. These three revolutionists, which led to surgical possibilities hitherto not dreamed of, were: Bacteriology, Asepsis, and the Rontgen Method.

I have endeavored to emphasize the great importance of these new branches of science without ignoring the notable researches and the valuable experiences of our ancestors. At the same time I have taken pains to make the book especially useful for the general practitioner by accentuating the border line character of the work. Consequently more stress is laid upon diagnostic points than is generally expected from a book of a distinctly surgical character.

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