Chirurgie d'armee ou traite des plaies d'armes a feu

Ravaton, Hugues. Chirurgie d'armee, ou traite des plaies d'armes a feu, et d'armes blanches. 8vo. viii, 681 [i.e., 685] [1]pp. 7 engraved plates. Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune, 1768. 197 x 123 mm. Mottled sheep c. 1768, a little rubbed, skillfully rebacked and recornered. Light foxing and browning, former owner's name on title crossed out. Booklabel (or bookseller's label?) of Gabriel Mullet on title.

First Edition. Garrison-Morton 2154: "One of the most important works on military surgery during the 18th century." Ravaton wrote intelligently about the treatment of gunshot wounds, and was the first to adopt the double-flap method in amputation; he also introduced the method of suspending fractures in a hanging position by means of a tin boot hung from a wire and attached to a frame (this device is illustrated in plate IV). OCLC states that the author's Traite des plaies d'armes a feu (1750) represents an earlier version of the Chirurgie d'armee, a statement borne out by Ravaton's preface to the latter; however, the Chirurgie d'armee is over 200 pages longer and substantially revised, making it in essence a new work. Hirsch treats the two titles as separate entities, and our other surgical references discuss only the Chirurgie d'armÈe. Wangensteen & Wangensteen, pp. 30, 32, 35. Rutkow, Surgery: An Illustrated History, p. 250. Not in Peltier or Le Vay.