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Dr.
R.L. Spittel’s book, “Essentials of Surgery” reprinted and annotated by
Dr. Lakshman Karalliedde and Dr. Philip Veerasingam will be launched on
Wednesday, February 15, at 11.30 a.m. at the Lionel Memorial
auditorium, Wijerama House, No 6, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 7. Prof. A.
H. Sheriffdeen, Dr. Wilfred Jayasuriya and Dr. Premini Amerasinghe,
will be the speakers at the launch. All are welcome.
“We
see further afield, because we are sitting on the shoulders of Giants
who preceded us.The great objection to new books is that they prevent
our reading old ones” – Joseph Joubert (French Essayist 1754-1824).
The
editors Dr. Lakshman Karalliedde and Dr. Philip Veerasingam felt a
compelling need to re-introduce the whole book as “his ( Dr. Spittel’s)
practice relied on fundamentals – observe, record, tabulate, communicate
which utilise all five senses.” It would have been futile to update Dr.
Spittel’s book written in his inimitable manner. It was within our
scope to provide annotations, indicating briefly the advances in
diagnosis and management that have taken place subsequently.”
Dr.
Philip Veerasingam, one of the editors wrote: “Meticulous attention to
detail in his observations makes Dr. Spittel’s book timeless”.
In
his foreword, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, (Honorary), University of
Colombo A. H. Sheriffdeen writes, “This launch of Volume 1 of the
reprint of the book, ‘Essentials of Surgery’ by R.L.Spittel,
F.R.C.S.Eng. first published in 1932 when he was a Surgeon at the
General Hospital, Colombo, (now The National Hospital of Sri Lanka) and
Lecturer in Clinical Surgery, Ceylon Medical College, (now The Medical
Faculty, University of Colombo), together with annotations by experts is
timely and welcome. It gives the reader an opportunity to appreciate
the tremendous strides this discipline and medicine as a whole, has
taken since then.
“The book was written in the pre-antibiotic
era, when viruses and genetics were unknown, and when anaesthesia was in
its infancy and when the only imaging investigation available at that
time was X-rays. His objective was to present a concise alternative to
larger textbooks, so that, as stated in his preface, that “if
fundamental principles are thoroughly grasped by the student, their
application in diagnosis and treatment becomes a habit of the mind, then
the subject of surgery becomes both interesting and simple”. The book
achieves this and more, displaying at the same time the author’s
attributes of a true scientist, a good doctor and surgeon whose practice
was based on these foundations together with his skills as a good
medical teacher.
… “There were no specialties at that time.
General surgeons also treated patients with Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)
problems, Venereal diseases ( Sexually Transmitted Infections),
Orthopaedic problems, Neurosurgical, Vascular, Urology, Leprosy and of
course problems of surgical Oncology. In addition to text book
descriptions of these conditions, the reader would recognize and
appreciate the author’s unique style of descriptive talents.
“The
next feature of this launch is the addition of annotations to put the
text into modern perspectives. As undergraduates, we were told that 50%
of what we are teaching you today would at some time in the future be
proved to be wrong. The problem is that we do not know which 50%!”
Prof. Graham Taylor, Imperial College, London.A
discerning reader would readily note some of these, if not all the
errors, in what were at that time in history, truisms in surgery. The
annotations give evidence based accounts of modern advances compiled by
experts to give a “modern twist” to this absorbing book.”
Dr.Premini
Amerasinghe who was gifted this book by her uncle Dr. Spittel when she
was a medical student, encouraged a reprint and annotation that would
display Spittel’s descriptive writings.
Dr. Wilfred Jayasuriya
will speak on the versatility of Spittel’s intellect which enabled him
to practise surgery in Veddahland and conclusions about “essentials” of
surgery. Dr. Jayasuriya considered that professional updating a work
through ‘annotations’ was one of the main methods of literary/historical
study by which ancient texts like the Bible or the Mahavamsa are made
comprehensible and relevant to the present scene.
The book would be an ideal companion for present undergraduate and post-graduate students of surgery
.
The
book priced Rs. 1950 will be available at the launch and thereafter
at Sooriya Publishers, 109 Ven. S. Mahinda Mawatha, Col. 10 and
leading bookshops