Book Reviews
and she concentrates on his work and achievements with little concern for his private
life. Her scholarly book, therefore, becomes the definitive biography of a complex but
fascinating individual.
OWEN H. WANGENSTEEN and SARAH D. WANGENSTEEN, The rise of
surgery. From empiric craft to scientific discipline, Folkestone, Kent, Dawson, 1978,
4to, pp. xviii, 785, illus., £25.00
Professor Wangensteen is a distinguished American surgeon whose name is known
world-wide, and his wife, a historian, has collaborated with him in several articles on
the history of surgery. Their main aims in this huge book are to show that history is of
importance in the teaching of medicine, and that by following the history ofemergency
surgery it can be demonstrated how surgery as a craft has grown into a scientific
discipline. Thus, they discuss the evolution of amputation, lithotomy, intestinal
obstruction, tracheostomy, ectopic pregnancy, ovariotomy, etc. Each topic is
examined in detail with profuse notes and references, but despite the amount of data
packed in through commendable industry, the text is more like a review of the
literature than real history. Thus the influence of background events and pressures,
medical, scientific, and social, are insufficiently discussed, and there is less
interpretation than there should be. There is also a tendency to over-emphasize the
contribution of American surgery, great as it certainly has been.
This book is, therefore, a compendium of information, much of which is readily
available elsewhere, and it is not entirely "a thoughtful look at the history of surgery"
as the dust-jacket claims. It certainly can be consulted as a source-book, but a
comprehensive survey of the evolution of surgery, taking into account the many
factors impelling it and impeding it, has yet to be written. The book is well illustrated
and a quarter of it is devoted to ’Notes and further readings’ and indexes.
Unfortunately the type is faint, making some of the smaller print difficult to read.
L. VAN BOGAERT and JEAN THEODORIDES, Constantin von Economo. The man
and the scientist, Vienna, Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1979, 8vo, pp. 138, illus., DM. 34.00 (paperback).
Von Economo (1876-1931) is remembered mainly on account of his work on
epidemic encephalitis. However, his other contributions to neurology, in particular his
classic, The cytoarchitectonics of the human cerebral cortex, are often overlooked. A
full, accurate, and sympathetic survey of his work has, therefore, been long overdue. In
this excellent monograph the authors make good the deficiency. They form a perfect
pair: Professor van Bogaert, the renowned Belgian neuro-clinician and -scientist who
knew von Economo; and Dr. Theodorides, the well-known French medical historian
and a nephew of von Economo. Together they have produced a praiseworthy book,
which has been elegantly printed and illustrated. It is a good example ofthe best type of
scientific biography and deserves wide circulation in the neurological and medical
historical fields.
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