Ambroise Paré
History of Medicine ... 8
In old times surgeons were not physicians, they were classified with the barbers. They were people with manual abilities, but usually uncultured and without adequate knowledge of the glorious medical profession. They were despised by the physicians.
Ambroise Paré was the man who changed this, he was probably the first eminent surgeon. He was also a pioneer on forensic medicine.
He was born around 1510 in Laval, France, and died in Paris in 1590. He first learned to be a barber and later learned wound-dressing at the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris. Snubbed by the physicians at the Collège de St. Côme, he decided to join the army, where he achieved his fame.
A Spanish surgeon, Juan de Vigo, published in 1514 a book called Practica Copiosa in Arte Chirurgica, in which he stated, quite dogmatically, that gunshot wounds were poisoned and had to be treated with boiling oil. This became the treatment of choice for these wounds.
Paré followed this tradition for a certain period of time. One day, however, he ran out of boiling oil, so he treated the remaining wounded soldiers with a solution of egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine. When he returned on the following morning he found that the soldiers treated with the boiling oil were feverish and had much pain. The ones treated with the ointment were sleeping peacefully and their wounds were healing well. As Paré’s fame grew and this story was told many times boiling oil was no longer use to treat battlefield wounds.
Later he reintroduced the ancient technique of stopping hemorrhages with ligatures and abandoned the cauterizing irons. The picture shown here is a collection of surgical instruments designed and made by Ambroise Paré. He also designed many types of prostheses for soldiers who lost hands, arms or legs in battle.
(Wikimedia Common)
Paré also studied quite methodically the effects of violent death on the internal organs and established procedures to write of legal reports related to medicine. For these writings he is considered the father of forensic medicine. His writings were in French, since he did not know Latin.
In 1554 King Henri II made him Master Surgeon, in spite of his poor education. In 1561 he published his extraordinary treatise, Anatomie Universelle du Corps Humain.
In old times surgeons were not physicians, they were classified with the barbers. They were people with manual abilities, but usually uncultured and without adequate knowledge of the glorious medical profession. They were despised by the physicians.
Ambroise Paré was the man who changed this, he was probably the first eminent surgeon. He was also a pioneer on forensic medicine.
He was born around 1510 in Laval, France, and died in Paris in 1590. He first learned to be a barber and later learned wound-dressing at the Hôtel-Dieu, in Paris. Snubbed by the physicians at the Collège de St. Côme, he decided to join the army, where he achieved his fame.
A Spanish surgeon, Juan de Vigo, published in 1514 a book called Practica Copiosa in Arte Chirurgica, in which he stated, quite dogmatically, that gunshot wounds were poisoned and had to be treated with boiling oil. This became the treatment of choice for these wounds.
Paré followed this tradition for a certain period of time. One day, however, he ran out of boiling oil, so he treated the remaining wounded soldiers with a solution of egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine. When he returned on the following morning he found that the soldiers treated with the boiling oil were feverish and had much pain. The ones treated with the ointment were sleeping peacefully and their wounds were healing well. As Paré’s fame grew and this story was told many times boiling oil was no longer use to treat battlefield wounds.
Later he reintroduced the ancient technique of stopping hemorrhages with ligatures and abandoned the cauterizing irons. The picture shown here is a collection of surgical instruments designed and made by Ambroise Paré. He also designed many types of prostheses for soldiers who lost hands, arms or legs in battle.
Paré also studied quite methodically the effects of violent death on the internal organs and established procedures to write of legal reports related to medicine. For these writings he is considered the father of forensic medicine. His writings were in French, since he did not know Latin.
In 1554 King Henri II made him Master Surgeon, in spite of his poor education. In 1561 he published his extraordinary treatise, Anatomie Universelle du Corps Humain.
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