The Story of Plastic Surgery. by Bankoff, George - 1952

1952. With drawings by Patience Forman. - London, Faber & Faber, 1952, 8°, 224 pp., zahlr. Abbildungen im Text und 18 Abb. auf 12 Taf., orig. Leinenband mit Schutzumschlag, leicht fleckig. First edition! "Mr. George Bankoff's enlightening book is written for the intelligent man or women who wants to know the facts about plastic surgery and wants, too, to see them set out plainly, without frills or sensationalism on the one hand, and without puzzling and obscure technicalities on the other. Here is a fascinating survey of the history of the art from its strange beginnings; an account of the tremendous resources of scientific plastic and reconstructive surgery to-day; and a forecast of future developments. `The Story of Plastic Surgery'shows how man can rebuild man, not merely to save his life when he has been injured or fallen victim to disease, but to restore him to the world a human being able to take again his proper place in it. It should speed the death of the old notion that there is something vaguely disreputable and undignified about a branch of surgery which in two world wars has done so much to make good the ravages that man wreaks upon his kind, and in peace performs a task hardly less humane. The book is fully illustrated with photographs showing the condition of patients before and after surgical treatment, and drawings by Patience Forman of the techniques employed in different types of plastic operation."