Excerpt from The British Journal of Surgery, 1919, Vol. 6: July 1918 to April 1919A review of the work of surgeons during the past momentous four years of military service, and its relation to the future of the practice of surgery, is a gigantic undertaking little suited to a short introduction to the sixth volume of the British Journal of Surgery, while so little are we in a position to grasp or eve conceive the actual conditions under which we shall live and work when the blessings of peace are again vouchsafed to us, that a forecast can provide but speculative interest. Yet it may not be unprofitable at this juncture to take stock of a few of the conditions which exist at the moment, and to ponder upon the influence these may possibly exert on the practice of surgery and the life and position of the surgeon in the future.The great outstanding features of military surgery lie in the possibilities which are provided by the casualties of battle for the rapid accumulation of facts and experience in a special field, and in the wide distribution of this work amongst a large number of medical men to whom under ordinary conditions the active practice of surgery might have been restricted in many instances to the narrowest limits, or even avoided with studious precaution.These conditions have permitted a combination of men representing every branch of medicine to join in collaborative research of a character and extent which ordinary circumstances could never have allowed, and effected a general assimilation of thought and aim difficult to conceive under the comparatively water-tight-compartment arrangements which exist in times of peace. Yet, side by side with the general breadth of outlook which has been thereby in great measure attained, a tendency to an undesirable degree of specialism has sprung into existence. It is to a consideration of these features that the following cursory remarks will be confined, and of the question as to how far they promise to exert an enduring influence on individuals who have been suddenly translated from a strenuous or an easy-going life, and whose energies under the conditions of the previous fifty years might have been confined to a narrower sphere and expended perhaps on an inglorious routine broken only by an occasional holiday or attendance at a medical meeting.A glance may first be taken at the material resources in medical personnel at the disposal of the War Department. The officers available may be conveniently grouped as follows: (1) Newly-qualified men, and qualified men who found themselves unattached and free at the outbreak of war; (2) Settled general practitioners; (3) Consulting physicians and surgeons, specialists in the various departments of medicine; and (4) Workers in pure science.1. The first group - consisting of volunteers, fresh young minds abounding in energy and the desire to win their spurs on their simultaneous entry into the arena of active life and into the field of military service - has afforded a most useful asset.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.