The historical collection of medical classics in the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office / Fielding H. Garrison.
- Fielding Hudson Garrison
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The historical collection of medical classics in the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office / Fielding H. Garrison. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![good work in the obscure province of descriptive nomen- clature; the treatises of Fallopius (1561), Varolins (1573), Vidius (1611), and Enstachius (1714), whose names have been epon3onically preserved in the struc- tures the}^ discovered; the monographs “De Formatn Foetu’^ (1600) and ''De Yenarnm Ostiolis” (1603) by Harvey’s teacher, Fabricins ah Aqnapendente; and the examples of French and Spanish anatomic illustration by Stephanns (1546) and Valverde (1556). The effect of Vesalins on Eenaissance surgery is seen in the life-work of Ambroise Pare (1510-90), who made the ^HVbrica” popular and accessible to surgeons by writing an epitome of it in the vernacular. Fare’s greatest contribution to surgery hinges on the baneful etfect which the Hippocratic aphorism that ‘^hliseases not curable by iron are curable by fire” exerted on the treatment of gunshot wounds, the new feature of Eenais- sance surgery. . Giovanni di Vigo, physician to Pope Julius II, had taught in his ^‘Practica” (1514), that such wounds were poisoned burns and therefore should be treated with a first dressing of boiling oil. How Fare’s supply of boiling oil gave out one night in camp and how he profited by the experience to the extent of letting well enough alone in future is well known. Had it not been for his ^Tat of puppy-dogs,” a lard or salve, which, from some tenacity of superstitition, he con- tinued to apply, he would have been a true asepsist. As it is, his relation to the healing ]mwer of nature is summed up in the famous inscription on his statue “Je le pansaAg Hieu le guarit.” Pare invented many new surgical instruments, made amputation what it is to-day by reintroducing the ligature which had fallen into abeyance since the time of Celsus; was the first to popularize the use of the truss in hernia and described fracture of the neck of the femur. In obstetrics, it was his description and use of podalic version that made the procedure viable aud practicable. In dentistry, he intro- duced reimplantation of the teeth, and his little treatise on medical jurisprudence (1575) was the first work of consequence on the subject prior to the ^Alethodus Testi- ficandi” of Codronchi (1597). Pare is represented by his essay on podalic version (1550), his treatise on gunshot wounds (1552), the first edition of his collective works (1575) and his discourse on the mummy aud the unicorn (1582), which success- fully disposed of an ancient therapeutic superstition.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22436789_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
