A Treatise on the Operations of Surgery, with a Description and Reprefentation of the in instruments Used in ...

A Treatise on the Operations of Surgery, with a Description and Reprefentation of the in instruments Used in Performing them: To which in Prefix`d an introduction on the Nature and Treatment of Wounds Abscesses and Ulcers.
London. Printed by J.Watts, M DCC XXXIX [1739]. [14], liii, [1], 224, [2] c., 14 Fig. Leather bound with gold embossing on the spine and blind stamping on the covers; the ends of the covers decorated in gold; decorated [sprayed] bleed; reduced format (12.8 x 19.5 cm).

The upper cover of the binding and loose leaf flyleaf separately from the unit; on the flyleaf owner's signature, a trace from a torn labels, damaged paper around the perimeter of the covers; stamps on the title; a loss on page xliii/xliv, not affecting the text; [it is possible to lose individual leaves Aspergillus niger]; penetrating stains at the beginning of the block and the last 46 p.; split unit for the nachsatz.

[Samuel sharp (1709-1778) was an English surgeon and writer.

He practiced at guy's hospital from 1733 to 1757 and was a world-famous surgeon. His "Treatise on operations in surgery" (1st ed., 1739) was the first British study devoted exclusively to operative technique.

He was elected surgeon to guy's hospital on 9 August 1733, when Cheselden published his "Osteography" (or bone anatomy). Sharpe is said to have assisted his former master in the preparation of this great work, and Cheselden placed a portrait of Belcher and Sharpe on the frontispiece. Sharpe quickly acquired an extensive practice. The difficult year of 1746, due to lack of rest and frequent asthma attacks, led to his resignation.

Sharpe used to lecture at Covent garden on winter days before the society of marine surgeons. From these lectures grew the hunter school of medicine in great windmill street, which laid the Foundation for modern medical education. Sharp visited Paris for the second time in 1749 and was elected a fellow of the Royal society of Paris, and on 13 April 1749 became a fellow of the Royal society of London. The direct result of this journey was a "Critical study of the Present state of surgery, " published in 1754 , a work that gives an interesting account of modern surgical practice, especially in French schools.

Sharp declined an appointment to guy's hospital on 23 September 1757 due to ill health, but continued to practice until 1765, when he went on a winter tour of Italy. The results were published in his Frank letters from Italy, which appeared in August 1766. (The book mentions a character in Tobias Smollett's epistolary novel the Humphrey Clinker Expedition.) The work attracted attention on the continent, and was interesting as a direct link connecting old surgery with modern. Sharp was the first who suggested to make the body of the conical trephine.]