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The history of plastic and reconstructive surgery in the netherlands
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BOOK REVIEWS
MALIGNANTMELANOMAOF THE SKIN AND Mucous MEMBRANE. By G. W. MILTON, with chapters by V. J. MCGOVERNand MARTIN G. LEWIS. Pp. 174 with 114 illustrations. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, London and New York, 1977. Price LIZ+OO. Dr G. W. Milton is Professor of Surgery in the University of Sydney, Australia, and also the Director of the Melanoma Unit in Sydney Hospital. This book is largely his experience of the treatment of the disease. He covers fully the diagnosis of the condition and then discusses the treatment of the condition depending on the site in which the primary lesion occurs. Finally, he deals very adequately with the problem of recurrences and their treatment and the care of the termmal patient. While dealing with the possibility of other methods, he concentrates on the technique which he has found most useful and gives the actual results from his series. Dr V. J. McGovern is a Senior Pathologist in the University of Sydney whose writings on the pathology of malignant melanoma are already well known and he covers such matters as the aetiology and the histology and the histological diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Dr Martin Lewis is the Director of the Cancer Research Unit in Montreal and his chapter deals with immunology and immunotherapy of malignant melanoma. He begins it with a graph showing the increase in the number of publications on tumour immunology rising from about ISO in 1965 to 1,500 in 1972 and probably still more today. His is a careful account of the subject and he takes care to raise no false hopes. The hundreds of references with which he concludes his chapter is an excellent bibliography of tumour immunology. The standard of publication is fully up to the standard of Churchill Livingstone and the colour plates which illustrate the problems of diagnosis are very clear and helpful. This is an excellent monograph which everyone who has an interest in malignant melanoma will find essential reading. T. GIBSON
THE HISTORYOF PLASTICAND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY IN THENETHERLANDS.By H. I?. J_ WINTERS. Leiderdorp: Technical Advertising and Printing, 1976. Pp. 86. This extremely interesting account in Dutch of the evolution of our relatively young specialty was produced at about the time of the celebrations in 1975 to mark the first 25 years of the Dutch Society. There are brief sections on the development of General Surgery and Plastic Surgery in the world and then an account of “plastic surgery” in Holland before the specialty became established. Following 2 short chapters on the history of the establishment of the specialty in Holland and of the Dutch Society itself, there is a very full description of the present-day training requirements. The account of the Common Market negotiations and decisions relating to our specialty would be of considerable interest to surgeons in Great Britain if published in English. One might say that the Dutch Society had a rather slow beginning, during which it enjoyed, as it It has flourished to such an extent that there still does, a close and happy connection with Great Britain. are now more plastic surgeons per million in Holland than in Great Britain. It was not altogether inappropriate that the 2 honorary guests, McIndoe and Mowlem from England, at the first meeting of the Society in 1950 were both New Zealanders and I expect both were mindful of the fact that New Zealand itself was discovered by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. Dr Winters is to be commended for setting down on paper a piece of history while it is still in the making and thus eminently tangible. D. E. TOLHURST
THE SOURCEBOOKOFPLASTICSUGERY. By FRANKMCDOWELL, M.D., Sc.D. (The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore.)
Pp. xiv+ 509.
This book is a collection of writings which represent milestones on the road of Plastic Surgery from the earliest known records up to the early decades of the present century. The material is presented in 3 different ways: original papers, historical review articles and biographies. The majority of the original papers are from the 19th century and are in English or an English translation and we find such well-known names as Thiersch, Langenbeck, Fergusson, Wolfe, Joseph and Blair. Four main groups of papers cover I particularly enjoyed the section the subjects of free skin grafts, rhinoplasty, cleft lip and cleft palate. on cleft palate which in the original papers traces the development of treatment from the earliest operations The cleft lip group contains an of Roux and Von-Graefe up to Dorrance and his push-back operation. excellent historical review by Blair Rogers which is entitled “Hare Lip Repair In Colomal America”, although in fact it covers a much wider field both in time and space than is implied by the title. Most of the original papers have previously been re-published during recent years in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and each is followed by a short biographical note and a commentary by a modern authority on the subject. In addition to these brief biographical notes, there is a final section which contains biographies of 7 men who have made substantial contributions in plastic surgery. The last and most complete being that of Vilray I’. Blair who died as recently as 1955.
BOOK REVIEWS
MALIGNANTMELANOMAOF THE SKIN AND Mucous MEMBRANE. By G. W. MILTON, with chapters by V. J. MCGOVERNand MARTIN G. LEWIS. Pp. 174 with 114 illustrations. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, London and New York, 1977. Price LIZ+OO. Dr G. W. Milton is Professor of Surgery in the University of Sydney, Australia, and also the Director of the Melanoma Unit in Sydney Hospital. This book is largely his experience of the treatment of the disease. He covers fully the diagnosis of the condition and then discusses the treatment of the condition depending on the site in which the primary lesion occurs. Finally, he deals very adequately with the problem of recurrences and their treatment and the care of the termmal patient. While dealing with the possibility of other methods, he concentrates on the technique which he has found most useful and gives the actual results from his series. Dr V. J. McGovern is a Senior Pathologist in the University of Sydney whose writings on the pathology of malignant melanoma are already well known and he covers such matters as the aetiology and the histology and the histological diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Dr Martin Lewis is the Director of the Cancer Research Unit in Montreal and his chapter deals with immunology and immunotherapy of malignant melanoma. He begins it with a graph showing the increase in the number of publications on tumour immunology rising from about ISO in 1965 to 1,500 in 1972 and probably still more today. His is a careful account of the subject and he takes care to raise no false hopes. The hundreds of references with which he concludes his chapter is an excellent bibliography of tumour immunology. The standard of publication is fully up to the standard of Churchill Livingstone and the colour plates which illustrate the problems of diagnosis are very clear and helpful. This is an excellent monograph which everyone who has an interest in malignant melanoma will find essential reading. T. GIBSON
THE HISTORYOF PLASTICAND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY IN THENETHERLANDS.By H. I?. J_ WINTERS. Leiderdorp: Technical Advertising and Printing, 1976. Pp. 86. This extremely interesting account in Dutch of the evolution of our relatively young specialty was produced at about the time of the celebrations in 1975 to mark the first 25 years of the Dutch Society. There are brief sections on the development of General Surgery and Plastic Surgery in the world and then an account of “plastic surgery” in Holland before the specialty became established. Following 2 short chapters on the history of the establishment of the specialty in Holland and of the Dutch Society itself, there is a very full description of the present-day training requirements. The account of the Common Market negotiations and decisions relating to our specialty would be of considerable interest to surgeons in Great Britain if published in English. One might say that the Dutch Society had a rather slow beginning, during which it enjoyed, as it It has flourished to such an extent that there still does, a close and happy connection with Great Britain. are now more plastic surgeons per million in Holland than in Great Britain. It was not altogether inappropriate that the 2 honorary guests, McIndoe and Mowlem from England, at the first meeting of the Society in 1950 were both New Zealanders and I expect both were mindful of the fact that New Zealand itself was discovered by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman. Dr Winters is to be commended for setting down on paper a piece of history while it is still in the making and thus eminently tangible. D. E. TOLHURST
THE SOURCEBOOKOFPLASTICSUGERY. By FRANKMCDOWELL, M.D., Sc.D. (The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore.)
Pp. xiv+ 509.
This book is a collection of writings which represent milestones on the road of Plastic Surgery from the earliest known records up to the early decades of the present century. The material is presented in 3 different ways: original papers, historical review articles and biographies. The majority of the original papers are from the 19th century and are in English or an English translation and we find such well-known names as Thiersch, Langenbeck, Fergusson, Wolfe, Joseph and Blair. Four main groups of papers cover I particularly enjoyed the section the subjects of free skin grafts, rhinoplasty, cleft lip and cleft palate. on cleft palate which in the original papers traces the development of treatment from the earliest operations The cleft lip group contains an of Roux and Von-Graefe up to Dorrance and his push-back operation. excellent historical review by Blair Rogers which is entitled “Hare Lip Repair In Colomal America”, although in fact it covers a much wider field both in time and space than is implied by the title. Most of the original papers have previously been re-published during recent years in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and each is followed by a short biographical note and a commentary by a modern authority on the subject. In addition to these brief biographical notes, there is a final section which contains biographies of 7 men who have made substantial contributions in plastic surgery. The last and most complete being that of Vilray I’. Blair who died as recently as 1955.