Knife Fire and Boiling Oil

(Paperback)

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This book tells the story of the early history of surgery - when surgeons were equipped with just knives, fire and boiling oil. The two events which mark the beginning of 'modern' surgery are the introduction of anaesthesia and antiseptic, both in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, present day knowledge and techniques have resulted from the cumulative observations and experiments of centuries. This book celebrates the dedication and ingenuity of the early pioneers of surgery and documents some of their remarkable surgical procedures. Bishop cites as sources: ancient Babylonian and Assyrian surgical laws; Egyptian textbooks from 3000 BC; the second-century Chinese surgeon Hua To; Hindu physicians who created artificial noses hundreds of years before plastic surgery; and, the brilliant William Cheselden, who could remove a stone from a bladder in less than a minute! Including graphic accounts of wartime surgery, wound treatments, blood transfusions and body snatching, this book will inform and intrigue medical students and professionals and general readers alike.

Author Bio

William John Bishop was highly regarded as a librarian, editor and historian both in Britain and abroad. After more than thirty years in libraries he decided to devote the remainder of his life to his own researches in medical bibliography and history. He was editor of Medical History, the only British journal devoted to the history of medicine. In 1959 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Society of Medicine. He died in 1961.