Page:Gillies plastic surgery 1920.djvu/14

 PREFACE

Surgery of the Face is not a new development. Surgeons of all civilised and some uncivilised countries have from time to time evolved methods of repair for various disfigurements.

But not until the organisation of the new home Medical Service necessitated by the late war, with the need for refinement in the matter of segregation of cases in special hospitals so ably met by Lieut.-General Sir Alfred Keogh, our late Director-General, has there been opportunity for anything but disjointed study in this department of surgery.

In the later development of the work, the continuity of research was maintained by facilities afforded by his successor, Sir John Goodwin, for the retention of the specially trained staff, in spite of the difficulties caused by the growing shortage of medical officers.

The author wishes to place on record his thanks to Major-Generals Sir Anthony Bowlby and Sir George Makins, and Sir Frank Colyer, who, in their capacity as consultants, laid before the Director-General the importance of organising means for the intensive study of this special branch of reparative surgery.

The work on which this book is founded began in January 1916, at the Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot, where, under the stimulus and able direction of Colonel Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, the treatment of war injuries of the face and jaw was studied under suitable conditions in wards earmarked for the purpose.

The author had the advantage there of co-operating with Captain L. A. B. King, L.D.S., attached R.A.M.C., whose help as Chief Dental Surgeon through that stern period of doubt, trial, and error was invaluable. The influence of his work is still evident in our treatment of jaw injuries to-day.

A rapid increase in the scope of the work led to the removal of the hospital to Sidcup, where, thanks to the sympathy and energy of Colonel Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, Lieut. -Colonel J. R. Colvin, and Major Waldron, C.A.M.C., ix