Book Notes
For the General Welfare: Essays in
Honor of Robert H. Bremner. Edited by
Frank Annunziata, Patrick D. Reagan, and
Roy T. Wortman. (New York: Peter
Lang, 1989. xiv + 390p.; notes.) This is
a collection of articles published by
historians who feel professionally
indebted to their mentor, Bob Bremner.
Professor Bremner, while at The Ohio
State University, was indeed a unique
scholar, one who could at the same time
devote himself to the classroom and
teaching, research and publishing, and
the professional and personal welfare of
his students. These articles by a group
of his former students who earned their
Ph.D.s under his direction are an
affectionate thank you to a professor who
managed to be both scholarly and humane.
Ohio Historical Society Robert L. Daugherty
The Journals of William A. Lindsay:
An Ordinary Nineteenth-Century
Physician's Surgical Cases. Edited by Katherine Mandusic McDonell.
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical
Society, 1989. xlix + 216p.; illustrations,
maps, chronology, glossaries,
bibliographies, index.) For anyone trying to
understand life in frontier mid-America
before the Civil War, the matter-of-fact
journals of Dr. William A. Lindsay should be required
reading. It is not easy or
comfortable reading, for Lindsay's
accounts are mainly concerned with patient
history and surgical procedures. Surgery
in the 19th century was a remedy of
last resort, frequently performed in a
state of emergency or when the patient
could no longer endure the pain from his
disease. Operations were usually
performed on the kitchen table at the
patient's home, assisted by family
members or when possible by another
physician in the area. Lindsay worked
without benefit of anesthesia and knew
nothing of the germ theory of disease
and asepsis. Only when a patient's
suffering was considered to be extreme was
it thought important enough to be
mentioned. Lindsay practiced surgery in
Ohio (Clark, Montgomery, Preble, Darke,
and Butler counties) and in Indiana
(Wayne, Fayette, Union, and Dearborn
counties). These journals (three out of
four known to exist) were written
between the years 1836-1855, retrospectively
describing surgical cases performed
between 1822-1841. Katherine Mandusic
McDonell, editor, provides an
interesting introduction to the journals which
includes a summary of nineteenth century
surgical practices and a biographical
sketch of Lindsay. Also helpful to the
reader are a glossary of medical and
pharmaceutical terms, many no longer in
use today, and a glossary of personal
and place names. Arresting illustrations
depict the type of surgical cases
Lindsay describes, taken from
contemporary sources which Lindsay might
have read, along with photographs of the
surgical armamentarium available to
the pioneer physician.
Cleveland Health Sciences Library Glen Jenkins
The Detroit, Toledo and Ironton
Railroad: Henry Ford's Railroad. By
Scott
D. Trostel. (Fletcher, Ohio: Cam-Tech
Publishing, 1988. 312p.; illustrations,