A GREAT SURGEON.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 1

A GREAT SURGEON.

I D f K. Grenfell writes In the "Pall I Mall Magazine" respecting Sir Fred--1 crick Treves : — , "It was true once, and I believe it 13 true still, that Sir Frederick Treves ('is the most prolific surgical author : alive. ! "His pen, and knife, when I first knew him, were never idle ; and I can : hardly say from which I learned j most. His books were classics on both sides of the Atlantic, and I dcubt if any surgical work yet written can compare with Treves ' Operative Surgery' for the practical assistance it gives to a young operator who is in doubt. , "The book is just like the man. It says, ' Do this one thing,' ' Use that one instrument,' 'Make that particui lar incision,' 'Insert that ligature j and no other' — so that -you can go jup to your work confident that all ; will go we11. ... You are no longer in } doubt and the trepidation resulting from it, even though there be better ways of working; for you are inspirei with your author's own confidence —a feeling so absolutely essential to -success in surgery. You seem almost to see your patient walking away grateful before you begin. ■■ "In teaching also at the London Hospital, I never knew any man who ■ could command oi" the case. Not that that was gen-house-surgeon would be taxed to his utmost on his visiting days to' get the great crowd that used to follow Sir Frederick round the wards to allow ! space for even nurses and dressers to the patients' bedsides. "When acting in that capacity, I myself have had to stand behind rows of graduates and undergraduates from all'over the world, who have come untold distances to hear him, and were not going to be shouldered into the .background, while the humble housesurgeon tried to create an unseemly disturbance by getting near the patient in order to explain the progress of . thecase.. . Not that that was generally necessary, for, with ten thousand other duties, Sir Frederick always went round his wards alone and personally saw every one of his cases e\ery Sunday morning, notebook in hand." ■