La punta del bisturí: Frank G. Slaughter’s Tour of Twentieth-Century Surgery and Medicine
Frank G. Slaughter is best known for his medical novels, but he was a surgeon by profession, and in La punta del bisturí (The Point of the Scalpel) he writes non-fiction: a collection of descriptions of the methods hospitals use to treat people with severe burns, head injuries, concussion and much more.
Author: Frank G. Slaughter (1908–2001), American surgeon and novelist
Title: La punta del bisturí
Format: Spanish paperback (Planeta, 1968), 316 pages
Scope: Popular medicine and surgery
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/B00MKZNQYK (ASIN B00MKZNQYK)
Medicine Shaped by War and Disaster
Several events of the twentieth century became great opportunities for advancing medical protocols: the First World War (1914–1918) and the Second World War (1939–1945), the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) and the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston (1942), which brought major advances in the treatment of burns.
From Lobotomy to Metal Bones
What can be expected from a prefrontal lobotomy? Is it ethical to change a person’s personality completely to improve their quality of life? The book also covers metal implants such as Vitallium for rebuilding bones, and the search for other non-corrosive, malleable and strong materials adapted to the surgeon’s needs; the separation of blood components and plasma transfusions for severe burns; infection and its causes, bandage materials, and the importance of sterilising all equipment and washing hands before any operation.
Prosthetics, Anaesthesia and Penicillin
The reviewer was struck by the example of a modern prosthesis able to perform movements as delicate as striking a match, and by the attempts to link a prosthetic hand to the nerves in the stump so that it responds to the wearer’s reflexes. Other chapters deal with the evolution of anaesthesia and the use of penicillin, cancer prevention and diagnosis, sciatica and its surgical treatment, tropical parasitic diseases such as malaria, diabetes and kidney failure.
Surgeon and Novelist
Frank G. Slaughter (1908–2001) trained as a doctor at Johns Hopkins and practised as a surgeon in Florida, serving in the US Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. He began writing fiction in the 1940s, and his first novel, That None Should Die (1941), was a success. Dozens of novels followed, many of them hospital dramas and biblical stories, and he became one of the best-selling American authors of his time, widely translated into Spanish.
Why This Book Is Unusual
Readers who know Slaughter through his novels will find a different side of him here. Instead of romance and hospital intrigue, he offers plain explanations of real techniques, using his own experience as a surgeon. The result has dated in many details, since surgery has changed enormously since the mid-twentieth century, but that is also what makes it interesting today: it is a snapshot of medicine at a moment when antibiotics, new materials and modern anaesthesia were transforming what surgeons could do.
A Note for Today’s Readers
Some of the treatments described, such as prefrontal lobotomy, are now regarded as serious mistakes, and the book should be read as history rather than as current medical information. This Spanish edition from 1968 is out of print and mainly available second-hand.
It will appeal especially to readers interested in the history of medicine.
Read it alongside a modern account to see how far surgery has come.
The Surgeon’s Decision
Slaughter also discusses the relationship between surgery and psychology and the weight of the surgeon’s decision: when should an operation go ahead? The training of all hospital staff is essential; speed in treating appendicitis or early diagnosis of cancer can make all the difference. He also criticises the American health system of his day. The book is old and only available in Spanish, second-hand, but it is a fascinating snapshot of mid-century medicine.
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