It is fortunate that people like Dr Herbert Dan Adams write down their recollections. In the narrowest sense, this gives a permanent form to his memories for members of his family in this and future generations to read with pleasure, interest, and pride. In the larger view, it captures for the reading public a valuable glimpse of one man's participation in the world of medicine during the middle third of the twentieth century. And in this instance, the author, who has been retired for over 20 years and is now aged 87, waited for several decades before putting his thoughts on paper in an attractive and well-written presentation.
In The Knife That Saves Dr Adams has really combined three books in one: an autobiography, a memoir of Dr Frank H. Lahey, and a personal account of the Lahey Clinic, especially over the 33-year period 1936 to 1969.
As to the