Book excerpt: Internationally known as a medical pioneer, John Benjamin Murphy treated those injured in the Haymarket Riot and gave medical testimony afterward. His help was sought when Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee. Many of Murphy's innovations remain current today in areas including physical examination, experimental surgery, appendicitis, intestinal amastomosis, bone grafting, joint surgery, and nerve repair. This wide-ranging collection offers a comprehensive picture of a man whose publicity seeking roused the animosity of some of his colleagues, but who remained in the forefront of his profession for more than thirty years. The volume includes many of Murphy's own notes on surgical and other medical procedures, an overview of his medical practice and life, more than eighty-four photographs, and an extensive bibliography.