‘A treatise on operative surgery comprising a description of the various processes of the art’

Pharmacist and collector Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) established the Wellcome Trust in his will. The Trust is a treasure trove of wonder. These colour lithographs are from the library. Many were created for US surgeon Joseph Pancoast’s (November 23, 1805 – March 6, 1882) 1844 book A Treatise on Operative Surgery. It is “A treatise on operative surgery comprising a description of the various processes of the art, including all the new operations; exhibiting the state of surgical science in is present advanced condition; with eighty plates containing four-hundred and eighty-six separate illustrations.” Other images can be found in the 1848 work Précis iconographique de médecine opératoire et d’anatomie chirurgicale by Claude Bernard (1813-1878). They are captivating and unsettling.