Lectures on Orthopedic Surgery and Diseases of the Joints by Lewis A. Sayre, first published in 1876 is a work that would cement its author’s reputation as the father of American orthopedic surgery . Sayre, a native of New Jersey who had studied at Transylvania University and graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, brought decades of pioneering clinical experience to this volume . He had been urged for many years to write on orthopedic surgery but initially declined because his views were so directly at variance with the standard authorities of his day . He finally concluded that his extensive experience confirmed his original positions and agreed to publish.
The book originated from lectures Sayre delivered at Bellevue Hospital Medical College during the winter session of 1874-1875 . Having no time to write a conventional treatise, he engaged a stenographer to record his lectures verbatim, adding only a few case reports and making minimal changes to the transcribed manuscript . This approach preserved the immediacy and pedagogical clarity of his classroom presentations while capturing the essence of his surgical philosophy . The resulting volume runs to x, 476 pages, measures approximately 23 to 24 centimeters in height, and is generously illustrated with 274 wood engravings depicting surgical techniques, instruments, and anatomical conditions.
Sayre’s contributions to orthopedic surgery were both innovative and enduring. He had performed the first successful hip resection in the United States in 1854, and in 1877, the year following this book’s publication, he would become the first surgeon to use plaster-of-Paris as a supportive jacket for the spinal column in treating scoliosis and Pott’s disease . The 1876 volume includes an index and a 32-page publisher’s catalog of medical works published by D. Appleton & Company . Its significance was immediately recognized, and it is cited in the authoritative Garrison-Morton bibliography of medical history as entry number 4342.1 . Original copies are held in major medical historical collections including those at the Mayo Clinic, the University of Iowa, and the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale.
