Joseph Bell is now chiefly remembered for his influence on his sometime clerk, Arthur Conan Doyle, who incorporated the former's celebrated powers of observation and deduction into the character of his great literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. But in his day he was widely lauded as an excellent and scientifically minded surgeon. He wrote many books and articles, such as this Manual of the Operations of Surgery, which was intended for the instruction of new doctors, incorporating the best methods and practices of the time. Bell was a meticulous and concise author, and made great use of illustrations as teaching aids. The text of this book closely follows the revised fifth edition, it is a careful re-edit, not a scan, all the original plates and figures are included (in black and white). This work will be of great interest to students of the history of medicine, but is definitely not suitable for use as a guide to current-day surgical procedures.