Written in a lively and engaging style, by a medical author and teacher of great renown, this book provides a fascinating and interesting introduction to the subject for anyone with an interest in it. It illustrates some of the key advances in surgery from primitive techniques such as trepanning, through some of the gruesome but occasionally successful methods employed by the ancient civilisations, the increasingly sophisticated techniques of the Greeks and Romans, the advances of the Dark Ages and the Renaissance and on to the early pioneers of anaesthesia and antisepsis such as Morton, Lister and Pasteur. The impact of modern warfare on the development of surgical procedures is also discussed and Professor Ellis ends with a fascinating glimpse into the future of surgery in the next millenium.