RT Journal A1 Allen J T1 CHristopher's textbook of surgery JF JAMA JO JAMA YR 1969 FD January 20 VO 207 IS 3 SP 563 OP 563 DO 10.1001/jama.1969.03150160075027 UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1969.03150160075027 AB The ninth edition of Christopher's Textbook of Surgery represents a skillful evolution over a period of 32 years since the textbook first appeared. Few textbooks of surgery have enjoyed so long a life and have served so usefully as a reference textbook. The first few editions were too encyclopedic to serve adequately as a text for students, and too brief to serve well the encyclopedic needs of the surgeon in practice. With the death of Christopher, Davis revised the book, making it more useful to the student and the practitioner of surgery.The ninth edition contains many chapters not found in the first edition, and to compare the first and the ninth reminds one of the enormous advances that surgery has made during the lifetime of this text. For example, surgery of the liver and portal hypertension were not a subject to be found in the early editions, nor was