Arpad Geza Charles Gerster.

  • Mayo, William James, 1861-1939.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Arpad Geza Charles Gerster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MAYO: ARP AD GEZA CHARLES GERSTER 3 Andrews, of Chicago, say that this book was the greatest contribution to surgery of the time, and this is well demonstrated by its effect on the American profession. It so thoroughly taught diagnosis, pathology, and technique, as represented in the new school, that students were able to carry out to the extent of their ability the methods discussed, and young men with this new knowledge were able to better the work of older men whose experience proved a handicap. As I look back on that earlier period, I remember three books that helped to form my sur¬ gical mind: Abdominal Surgery, by Greig Smith, of Bristol, England; Operations of Surgery, by W. H. A. Jacobson, of Guy’s Hospital, London; and The Rules of Aseptic and Antiseptic Surgery, by Gerster. Gerster’s interests outside of medicine were broad. Music, art, literature, and life in the open, his greatest diversion and recreation, were all enjoyed with a keen zest. His sister, Etelka Gerster, notable as an operatic artist, greatly in¬ spired him in his love for music. He wrote well on many topics, and copies of etchings made by him are among the print collection of the New York Public Library. Toward the close of his life he limited his professional work to consulta¬ tions, and devoted his leisure to writing, and to painting in oils. In 1917 he pub¬ lished an auto-biography, Recollections of New York Surgeons, which portrays vividly the development of surgery from the time of his student days to the present. Gerster was a great man, and unusual. The distinguished honors which came to him were unsought. He loved his work, and lived for it.