This book represents an excellent and readable chronologic review and causative history of the early development of this reparative surgery. It is an absorbing story of men untrained by anything other than necessity, personal theories, large military experience and disease—so-called surgeons—endeavoring to repair the surface disabilities resulting from mutilations, warfare and pathologic changes. The early surgeon gained his main experience in the battlefield rather than by teaching in civil life. Much of the accomplishment was cosmetic in character. The text traces the evolutions and contributions of India, Egypt, Assyria, the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs. These include skin grafts, pedicled flaps from the forehead, face and arm, sliding flaps, crude débridement, irrigation, wound closure by adhesive tape, stitches and clips, control of hemorrhage by pressure, cauterization and, finally, ligation. These crude efforts were the basis of many scientific developments since the advent of universities, hospitals and the present era