Book Review

Orthopedics: A History and Iconography

N Engl J Med 1993; 329:1210October 14, 1993

Article

Orthopedics: A History and Iconography
By Leonard F. Peltier. 304 pp., illustrated. San Francisco, Norman, 1993. $225. ISBN: 0-930405-47-1

Physicians in breathless pursuit of state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic techniques sometimes need to pause and take stock. An examination of how medical specialties evolved can summon reflections on the wisdom and vision embodied in the origins of current techniques and practice. Orthopedics: A History and Iconography offers that opportunity.

This book has 331 pictures and engravings from historical sources and portraits of physicians who had a substantial impact on the emergence of orthopedics as a distinct specialty. It is organized according to disease categories rather than chronologically. In this way, the reader gains a broad overview of the effect of orthopedic disease on society and physicians over time. Most of the book focuses on events that occurred during or after the mid-18th century.

One of the frustrating aspects of this work is the limited information that can be gained from any one segment of a chapter. The book gives a rapid, historical perspective rather than in-depth accounts or analyses. For instance, in “Crippledom or the Condition of Being a Cripple,” the author tells us that Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill each had a serious, crippling injury or disease. Obviously, such a statement could be the basis for an entire book of its own. The limited depth of the treatise is balanced by exhaustive notes in each chapter.

This book will interest anyone involved directly or peripherally with orthopedic medicine and surgery. One cannot help but wonder whether the orthopedic devices and therapies of today will not appear as awkward and bizarre as the devices used 100 or more years ago and so well illustrated in this book. Orthopedics should provide a valuable perspective on the emergence of the specialty for orthopedic surgeons of today, a fascinating overview of the historical impact of orthopedic diseases for all physicians, and convincing proof of the value of research and refinement in medical and surgical therapies for our patients with orthopedic maladies.

John M. Cuckler, M.D.
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104