Ambroise Paré

Ambroise Paré (born in Bourg-Hersent, near Laval, France, c. 1510 – Paris, December 20, 1590) was a French surgeon. He was the great official royal surgeon for the kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III and is considered as one of the fathers of surgery. He was a leader in surgical techniques and battlefield medicine, especially the treatment of wounds. He was also an anatomist and the inventor of several surgical instruments.

Biography

After his apprenticeship at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris between 1533 and 1536, Paré soon became a military surgeon during the campaigns in Italy. In this occasion, he discovered a remedy against the pain of the wounded by firearms. Much of Paré's experience with wounds was acquired on the battlefield . In 1545 and 1553, he published the first and second editions of his treatise on the treatment of wounds by firearms and arrows, which is considered as milestone of surgical art. In 1561, Paré published his universal anatomy of the human body. Paré also published other scholarly treatises on the treatment of wounds and illnesses.

After a battle Ambroise Paré used egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine for war wounds instead of boiling oil. This was an ancient roman turpentine remedy. The following day, he observed that it was more efficient for healing wounds than the traditional boiling oil. The wounds were also less painful and weren't swollen.

Paré also introduced the ligature of arteries instead of cauterization during amputation. Although ligatures often spread infection, it still was an important breakthrough in surgical practice. During his work with injured soldiers, Paré documented the pain experienced by amputees which they perceive as sensation in the amputated limb. He believed that phantom pain occurred in the brain and are not the remnants of the limb, which is still the consensus of the medical community today.

Paré was also an important figure in the progress of obstetrics in the middle of the 16th century. He revived the operation of podalic version and showed how surgeons with this operation could often rescue an infant even in cases of head presentation, instead of breaking it up and extracting the infant piecemeal.

Paré was ably seconded by his pupil Jacques Guillemeau, who translated his work into Latin, and at a later period himself wrote a treatise on midwifery. An English translation of it was published in 1612 with the title Child Birth; or, The Happy Deliverie of Women.

In 1552, Paré was accepted into royal service of the Valois Dynasty under Henry II; he was however unable to cure the king's fatal blow to the head, which he received during a tournament in 1559. Paré stayed in service of the Kings of France to the end of his life in 1590, serving Henri II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henri III.

According to Henri IV's Prime Minister, Sully, Paré was a Huguenot and on August 24, 1572,the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Paré's life was saved when King Charles IX locked him in a clothes closet. While there is evidence that Paré may have been sympathetic to the Huguenot cause, he was twice married, was buried, and had his children baptized into the Catholic faith.

A collection of Paré's works was published at Paris in 1575. They were frequently reprinted, several editions appeared in German and Dutch, and among the English translations was that of Thomas Johnson (1665).

Bezoar Stone experiment

In 1565, Ambroise Paré described an experiment to test the properties of the Bezoar Stone. At the time, the Bezoar stone was commonly believed to be able to cure the effects of any poison, but Paré believed this to be impossible. It happened that a cook at Paré's court was caught stealing fine silver cutlery, and was condemned to be hanged. The cook agreed to be poisoned, on the conditions that he would be given some bezoar straight after the poison and go free in case he survived. The stone did not cure him, and he died in agony seven hours after being poisoned. Thus Paré had proved that the Bezoar stone could not cure all poisons.

Paré in popular culture

Vincent Delerm recently named a song "Ambroise Paré" on his 2006 album, Les Piqûres d'araignée.

Quotations

• "Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit", which means "I dressed him, and God healed him."
• "Guérir quelquefois, soulager souvent, consoler toujours", which means "Cure occasionally, relieve often, console always".

External links

• Biography (in French)
• Page through a virtual copy of Paré's Oeuvres
• . Bezoar stone story on pages 186–7. Paré not a huguenot on page 84