...the surgeon is destitute of human sympathy; so far as its more familiar manifestations are concerned, it ought to be so; for tremulous hands and tear-blinded eyes are but illy calculated for surgical duties; but I think it will be found that surgeons enjoy no immunity from the ordinary emotions of the body and heart. In this state-of-the-art, sometimes humorous, always compassionate book about his medical practice, Dr. Edward Dixon reveals to the lay audience what it was like being a practitioner of the healing arts in mid-nineteenth century America. Covering topics as diverse as tuberculosis, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and the detriments of celibacy, he writes in simple prose about case studies from his own career.