RT Journal Article T1 Ambroise Pare A1 Elena Berger A1 Sergey Glyantsev YR 2019 VO 11 IS Spring 2019 K1 history of surgery K1 gunshot wounds K1 Ambroise Paré K1 Giovanni da Vigo K1 wound dressings K1 cauterisation AB By the fifteenth-century firearms had spread all over Europe, but surgeons had no idea how to cure gunshot wounds. It was generally accepted that high mortality from gunshot wounds could be explained by some kind of ‘gunshot poison’ entering the body with the bullet, but information and practical advice on managing gunshot wounds varied enormously across Europe. There were no appropriate instructions for such a new kind of wound in the ancient medical tradition and more recent ideas were unevenly distributed. Although known in Germany, Hieronymus Brunschwig’s Buch der Wund Artzney (1497) seems to have been unfamiliar in France and instead French surgeons focused on Giovanni da Vigo’s La Practique et chirurgie (1542), which was translated into several languages. Ambroise Paré also followed da Vigo, but in the battlefield he had to revise the generally accepted method of gunshot wound treatment. In response to his experiences he proposed a new version of wound care where cauterisation was replaced with a ligature of the vessels and the use of a healing balm dressing. In his treatise Des Playes faicts par haquebutes et autres bastons à feu (1545) he described the main stages of healing and the principles of wound care he finally adopted. As Paré fell out of fashion, the idea of ‘gunshot poison’ was rejected by the medical authorities, but the technique of cauterising gunshot wounds, abandoned by Paré, was still practiced. Opponents of Paré argued that only a few people were cured by him and that those who were, were not seriously injured. It is of course impossible to know how many soldiers were cured with the help of Paré’s method but it nevertheless served as a basis for a new surgical paradigm. Perhaps most importantly, Paré’s method centred on the wish to reduce pain in the treatment process – an idea that was entirely new and ahead of its time. NO This term ‘digestive’ should not be misunderstood: according to traditional ancient medicine, an open wound was ‘cooking’, creating so-called benign pus (pus benignus), which would contribute to purification and healing of the wound. NO Paré seems to use the Lyons edition of 1515 in French; for the given paper, the authors use the Paris edition which appeared later than his study years. The authors of the given article used the edition of 1542: (Vigo, 1542) NO The Harquebus is a portable long-barrelled gun dating from the fifteenth century. NO A theriac was an ointment or other medicinal compound used as an antidote to snake venom or other poison. PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/191105 UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.org.uk/browse/issue-11/ambroise-pare/ CR Brockliss, L and Jones, C, 1997,The Medical World of Early Modern France (Oxford: Clarendon Press) CR Brunschwig, H, 1497, Dis ist das Buch der Cirurgia, Hantwirckung der Wund Artzney (Augspurg) CR Chase, K, 2003, Firearms: A Global History to 1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) CR Collard, F, 2003, Le crime de poison au Moyen Age (P.: PUF) CR DeVries, K, 1990, Military Surgical Practice and the Advent of Gunpowder WeaponryCBMH/BCHM, Volume 7: 1990 1, p 131–46 CR Dumaître, P, 1986, Ambroise Paré, Chirurgien de quatre rois de France (Paris: Perrin) CR Grmek, M, 1996, Histoire de la pensée médicale en Occident, t.2. De la Renaissance aux Lumières (Paris: Seuil) CR Killian, H, 1966, Im Schatten Der Siege: Chirurg Am Ilmensee 1941–1942–1943 (Berlin; Darmstadt; Wien: Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft) CR Le Paulmier, 1569, Traicté de la nature et curation des playes de Pistolle, Harquebouse, et autres bastons à feu. Ensemble, les remedes des combustions et bruslures externes et superficielles : Par J. Le P. Docteur en Medecine (Paris: Guillaume de Nyverd, avec privilege) CR Mounier-Kuhn, A, 2006, Chirurgie de guerre: le cas de Moyen Age (Paris: Economica) CR Olschki, l, 1927, Geschichte der neusprachlichen wissenschaftlichen Literatur, V. 3 (Leipzig: Niemeyer) CR Paré, A, 1545, La Méthode de traicter les playes faictes par hacquebutes et aultres bastons à feu et de celles qui sont faictes par flèches, dardz et semblables, aussy des combustions spécialement faictes par la pouldre à canon, composée par Ambroyse Paré... (Paris: V Gaulterot) CR Paré, A, 1585, Les Oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré... divisées en vingt huict livres avec les figures et portraicts, tant de l’anatomie que des instruments de chirurgie, et de plusieurs monstres, reveuës et augmentées par l’autheur. Quatriesme Edition (Paris: Gabriel Buon, Avec privilege du Roy) CR Porter, R, 1998, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind (NY – London: Fontana Press) CR Rey, R, 1993, Histoire de la douleur (Paris: La Découverte) CR Shane Tubbs et al, 2011, ‘Hieronymus Brunschwig (c. 1450–1513): his life and contributions to surgery’, Child’s Nervous System, March 2011, pp 1–5, DOI 10.1007/s00381-011-1417-x (accessed 25 February 2011) CR Sigerist, H, 1946, A fifteenth century surgeon: Hieronymus Brunschwig and his work (New York: Ben Abramson Publisher) CR Siraisi, N, 2001, Medicine and the Italian Universities: 1250–1600 (Leiden, Boston, Koln: Brill) CR Tracy, L and DeVries, K (eds), 2015, Wounds and Wound Repair in Medieval Culture (Leyden-Boston: Brill) CR de Vigo, G, 1542, de Vigo en françoys. La practique et cirurgie de excellent docteur en medecine Maistre Jehan de Vigo nouvellement imprimee et recogneue diligentement sur le latin avec les aphorismes et canons de cirurgie, composez par maistre Nicolas Godin docteur en medecine lesquelz sont inserez en la fin de ce present livre apres la partie compendieuse. Division de ladicte practique. La premiere partie est nommee la copieuse contenant neuf livres particuliers. La seconde est dicte compendieuse qui contient cinq livres particuliers: lesquelz sont declarez en la page sequente (Paris: Arnoul Langelier) WT Science Museum Group Journal OL 30