The Science and Art of Surgery. A Treatise on Surgical Injuries, Diseases, and Operations. Revised by the late MARCUS BECK and by RAYMOND JOHNSON.

Longmans, Green. London. 1895. Tenth edition. 2 volumes.. pp. xxvii, (i), 1220. 412 text figures; xxviii, 1350. 560 text figures. Publisher's cloth with small tear in the spine of v.I, signature of HEERAJEE J[EHANGIR] MANOCKJEE CURSETJEE, Grant College, Bombay, with his book-label of Gonville and Caius College, cancelled library stamps on the verso of the half-titles, very good copies. *Heerajee Cursetjee [1885-1964] born in Bombay, India, on 14 August 1885 to a prominent Parsi family. After a private schooling in India, Cursetjee travelled to England and studied medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and at The London Hospital (now The Royal London). A keen polo player and hunter, he initially wanted to be a cavalry officer. But his small physique counted against him. Instead, he was commissioned as a lieutenant with the Indian Medical Service (IMS) on 27 January 1912, having obtained his Conjoint diploma the year before. Cursetjee served as medical officer with the 14th King George's Own Ferozepore Sikhs in Egypt during the defence of the Suez Canal in 1914-15. He was promoted to captain on 27 January 1915. That same year, he also fought at Gallipoli, where his unit landed at 'V' Beach, Cape Helles, on 1 May 1915 with 29th Indian Brigade. He took part in the second and third battles for Krithia (May and June 1915) and was wounded by shell splinters on 28 June 1915, while attending to a private of the Royal Fusiliers. Cursetjee was evacuated from the Dardanelles in December 1915. His regiment then served in Egypt and Bushire in Persia during 1916. That year, he also obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from Cambridge University. Cursetjee's regiment remained in Mesopotamia until the end of the war. From 1919 until 1921, he served with them in Waziristan and the Khyber Pass on the North West Frontier of India. He was promoted to major in the IMS on 27 January 1924. Brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1931, he was then appointed deputy assistant director of medical services, and promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant-colonel on 27 July. In 1938, he was appointed to command the hospitals of the Lucknow Military District. Cursetjee was promoted to full colonel on 1 December that year. On 23 February 1941, Cursetjee was appointed an Honorary Surgeon to King George VI. On 12 July that year, he was also promoted to major-general, becoming one of the first Indians to achieve general officer rank in the British Indian Army. During the Second World War (1939-45), the IMS was integrated with the Indian Army Medical Corps. Cursetjee was soon appointed Deputy Director of Medical Services, Northern Command. He transferred to the North-Western Command in the same role in April 1942. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in the 1943 New Year Honours, and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1946. Cursetjee finally retired on 1 June 1946, later settling in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. He died in a car accident on 26 July 1964.