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Modern Surgery is a collection of 94 outstanding recent surgical articles, reprinted exactly as they first appeared in their original journal. The only addition to each paper is a brief "overview" by its senior author, setting the paper in perspective for the general reader and adding a few pertinent references. The articles selected are in the broad field of general surgery, including vascular and thoracic surgery, but not the various surgical subspecialities.
On first scanning the contents of Modern Surgery, the reader is tempted to ask why a book should be published which contains only journal articles already available in the library. The only new material is the brief "overview" following each article plus a few introductory pages dealing with the acquisition of library skills and personal reference materials. However, on more careful reading, Modern Surgery proves a stimulating review of current surgical practice.
The stimulus for the editors to