Article on Indian Rhinoplasty IN: The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, For the Year MDCCXCIV. Vol. LXIV. Part the second, issue for October 1794, pp. 891-92 and plate I (at p. 883).
Cicero's Head, Red-Lion Pasiage, Fleet-Street: John Nichols 1794. First Edition. [2], [585]-1212 + [16-index] pages. Brick red buckram binding with volume information on spine. Ex-library (properly withdrawn) with bookplate on front pastedown, stamp on volume title page, and occasional embossed stamp. Closely trimmed as normal with rebound copies. This volume contains the monthly issues of the Gentleman's Magazine (July-December) for 1794 plus an index, each issue with a separate engraved title page and various engraved plates throughout. Good. Cloth. [26043]
The October issue contains an oft cited article by 'B. L.' which details a surgical procedure which had been practiced "by a man of the Brickmaker cast" in India with success, but which the author felt was unknown in Europe. It describes the procedure (basically taking skin from the forehead to make a new nose), and provides a full page engraving of the result.
Michael Ciaschini in an article on the History of Plastic Surgery on eMedicine remarks : "Not until the end of the 18th century did reconstructive surgery begin to resurface in Europe, ultimately providing the foundation of the modern era of reconstructive plastic surgery. The most often-cited impetus to this new age of reconstructive surgery was a simple letter published in London in October of 1794 [as offered here] on page 891 of the Gentleman's Magazine by a British surgeon named Lucas." He notes that Carpue, a British surgeon, read this account and reasoned that 'if such a procedure could be performed in India by brickmakers, surgeons in Britain certainly could achieve it.' (and successfully did so over 20 years later).
A later letter to the editor in this same volume disputes that the procedure was unknown in Europe at the time, giving several examples (this rebuttal by T. J. can be found on page 1093).
"The first report published in Europe on the so-called Indian or Hindu method of rhinoplasty using a forehead flap, accompanied by an engraving of the patient, Cowasjee, with a restored nose and showing the stages of the operation." Garrison-Morton (5th/#5735.1)
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