A Manual of Minor Surgery

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1863. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. vi, [3], 10-288 p. 19 cm. 145 b&w figures. Cloth with blank impressing. Wrapped in protective mylar (removed for photo). Gilt spine lettering a bit dull. Worn corners and spine ends, some soiling to cloth. Signature on front endpaper. Cracked at pp. 140-141 and pp. 143-150 are detached. Margin stains up to p. 10.

John H. Packard, M.D. (1832-1907) was one of the most prominent American surgeons of the last part of the 19th century. A pioneer of modern American surgery, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1853 and, until his retirement in 1896, he practiced surgery in various Philadelphia hospitals, teaching surgery, pathology, and anatomy. He served as acting assistant surgeon in two Union Army hospitals during the Civil War and this popular textbook was adopted by the U.S. Army.

On p. 86, Packard states that "Chloroform is preferred by some surgeons of eminence in the United States ... It is pleasanter than ether, but more dangerous, many cases of death from its use having occurred." Packard used chloroform exclusively until 1864, due to its potency, speed of action, and the intense muscular relaxation that it produced. But in May 1865, he reported to the Philadelphia College of Physicians that, after witnessing several life-threatening or fatal accidents in his own or in his colleagues' practices, he was switching to ether.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, Packard received orders to report at the battlegrounds and, although quite ill with typhoid at the time, he obeyed the call. For three days and nights he laboured over the wounded but, being unable to continue, was sent back to Philadelphia suffering from a near-fatal attack of the fever (Kelly & Burrage, American Medical Biographies).