Item #JLR0491 A manual of military surgery. Civil War -- Surgery.
A manual of military surgery.
A manual of military surgery.
A manual of military surgery.
A manual of military surgery.
A manual of military surgery.
A manual of military surgery.

A manual of military surgery. Prepared for the use of the Confederate States Army. Illustrated. By order of the Surgeon-General

THE 10TH REGIMENT OF THE MISSOURI INFANTRY 
SURGEON’S BATTLEFIELD COPY OF THE RARE 
CONFEDERATE MANUAL OF MILITARY SURGERY 
WITH A DRAWING OF A FOOT SURGERY AND A 
COLLECTION OF 17 SURGICAL TOOLS

 

Richmond[, VA]: Ayres & Wade, 1863. First edition.

Duodecimo (6 15/16” x 4 3/8”, 176mm x 111mm): binder’s blank, 14 1*8 24 2*-124 12*8 132 13*4 (13*4 blank), binder’s blank. 150 leaves, pp. i-iii (title, copyright, preface) iv, 5 6-297, [3] (3 blanks). With 30 lithographed plates.

Bound in contemporary marbled card wraps backed with pale blue cloth tape. Presented with a collection of surgical tools along with an old snapped leather wallet (stored in an a later wallet).

Rubbed generally, with wear at the extremities and some loss to the marbled covers over the wraps. Hinges split, with losses to the tape. Evenly tanned throughout, with some offsetting and foxing. Mild damp-stain from the front wrapper through 1*5. Ink ownership signature of “R.J. Christie Surgeon/ 10th Regt/ Mo. Vol. Inf.” to the front paste-down, the recto of the first free end-paper and the upper edge of p. 47. A second hand has subscribed the signatures of Christie on the front paste-down and the first free end-paper; it is difficult to make out but contains the name Parsons (see below). Graphite ownership of the “Office Med…/ S.N.D.” to the recto of the first free end-paper. Marginal corrections in graphite to pp. 202, 215 and 241. An ink diagram labeled depicting a foot surgery to the recto of the rear free end-paper. Graphite sums to the verso of the rear free end-paper (tabulating privates and officers). An entirely unsophisticated example that likely saw battlefield use.


Not to be confused with John Julius Chisolm’s Manual of Military Surgery, for the use of Surgeons… published in 1861, which has a single folding table, the present item was the major illustrated handbook for Confederate doctors during the Civil War. Twice as many soldiers died from disease as from combat — a ratio that wouldn’t be reversed until WWII — which is, in part, a testament to the expertise of regimental surgeons, which was maligned even by the contemporary press. The Confederacy had half as many soldiers but a quarter of the medical personnel as the Union, and the injuries sustained by the Minié ammunition — slow-moving, seldom-exiting pieces of lead that brought dirt and bacteria into widening wounds — were difficult to treat in the pre-germ-theory era. The first two years of the war saw very rudimentary treatment infrastructure, but 1863 saw both Confederacy and Union investing in hospitals and other more durable materia medica — including handbooks such as this (the preface is dated October 1863).

The Manual, with its 30 lithographic plates (8 depicting the treatment of arteries, 14 amputation, 8 depicting resection), was surely a crucial resource for surgeons and other medical personnel who had often had very little training, and most of whom had never dealt with combat wounds — let alone the challenging circumstances of battlefield medical treatment. The volume aims to be a rough-and-ready guide rather than a comprehensive treatise on surgery. It first treats “surgical diseases” — shock, tetanus, gangrene — and then discusses gunshot wounds at length. Contrary to myth, anesthetic was used, and its deployment is discussed pp. 69–75. The remaining text corresponds to the disposition of the plates: arteries (including hemorrhages), amputation and resection.

This example was almost doubtless used in the field, as attested by the triple signature of Dr. Robert J. Christie (1831–1909), who was the surgeon to the 10th Regiment Missouri Infantry under the command of Brigadier-General Mosby Monroe Parsons — presumably noted below the ownership signatures. Christie wrote a memoir some months before his death, and it has been published online, providing a richly-textured recollection of his time serving the Confederacy as well as his medical training (graduating from the University of Pennsylvania). He was a “good friend” of General Parsons (who, after the war, went to fight in Mexico and was killed), and generally did quite well after the war, rising to be dean of the Quincy College of Medicine in Illinois, where he lived his latter years.

Of particular note is the diagram — in his hand, presumably — of a foot operation, the incision to the tarsometatarsal articulations. The operation is named but the name is difficult to decipher; it is reminiscent of the Lisfranc operation, published in 1815 after being practiced in the Napoleonic wars. Christie appears to have had a special interest in feet, noting the loss of the foot of Captain McClure of the 2nd Kansas (Union) at the Battle of Shelbina.

The book has become associated with a cache of 17 surgical instruments along with an old leather wallet (the tools are stored in a later wallet). The inventory below records their particulars. Some, to be sure, are much later than the Civil War. Lacking any expertise in this realm, I have only described them rather than assessed their antiquity, fitness or plausibility for use by Christie; it seems doubtful.

Doctors in Gray, p. 218; Norman 1433; P&W 184.

Surgical Instruments (numbered according to the figure)

  1. Forceps. 142mm x 64mm; blades (ribbed) 32mm. Stamped “SKLAR” below the screw.[1]
  2. Trocar. Barrel 107mm x 9mm; in two parts. Guilloche, with a reserved field for initials. -- (a) Thick point, threaded for insertion. 67mm, of which 9mm the point proper. -- (b) Thin point, threaded for insertion. 60mm, of which 5mm the point proper.
  3. Scalpel. 118mm x 9mm; blade from bevel 32mm. Stamped with a treble clef (?) at the top of the handle and “GERMANY” at the bottom.
  4. Take-apart forceps. 119mm x 60mm; blades (ribbed) 23mm. Each leg stamped “L”.
  5. Hollow needle. 116mm x 10mm (hilt). The end blunted, with 2 offset eyes along the length.
  6. Hollow needle. 103mm x 10mm (hilt). The end blunted, with 2 offset eyes along the length.
  7. Tweezers. 74mm x 7mm (abroad the tips) x 11mm (spread). An indentation at the base.
  8. Hooked scalpel. 138mm x 14mm; blade 14mm. Stamped “SHARP & SMITH” on the handle.[2]
  9. 3/8 circle conventional-cutting needle. 75mm chord length; 6mm eye.
  10. Half-curved diamond-point needle. 86mm chord length; 7mm eye.
  11. Concave scalpel. 114mm x 9mm; blade from bevel 27mm. Stamped “SHARP & SMITH” “GERMANY” on the handle.
  12. Needle-nosed tweezers. 110mm x 10mm x 6mm (spread); tip 30mm from the shoulder.
  13. Half-curved diamond-point needle. 75mm chord length; 5mm eye.
  14. Fish-tailed scalpel. 141mm x 12mml; blade from bevel 32mm. Brass-bodied and plated.
  15. Hollow needle. 64mm x 10mm (hilt). The end blunted, with 2 offset eyes along the length.
  16. Forceps. 120mm x 63mm; blades (ribbed) 27mm. Stamped “J” on one leg below the screw and “SKLAR” on the other. “MADE IN JAPAN” stamped on the inside of the latter leg.
  17. Extra-thick trocar point, threaded for insertion (compatible with no. 2). 67mm, of which 11mm the point proper.

[1] Founded 1892.

[2] Founded 1844.

Item #JLR0491

Price: $6,800

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