Full text of "Life and times of Ambroise Paré <1510-1590> with a new translation of his Apology and an account of his journeys in divers places"

BOSTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Mugar Memorial Library THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AMBROISE PARE 1^ Title Page of .Johnston s Translation (Firxt edilifin.) LIFE AND TIMES OF AMBROISE PARE {^1510- 1590] With a J^ew Translation of his Apology and an Account of his Journeys in Divers Places BY Francis R. Packard, m.d. Editor of Annals of Medical History, ?<lew Yor\ WITH TWENTVTWO TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS, TWENTY'SEVEN FULL PAGE PLATES AND TWO FOLDED MAPS OF PARIS OF THE i6tH AND I7TH CENTURIES NEW YORK PAUL B. HOEBER 1921 Copyright, 1921, By PAUL B. HOEBER Printed in the United States of America I? TO MY WIFE TO WHOM I OWE MY INTEREST IN FRENCH HISTORY FOREWORD HE object of this book is to present a complete English translation of Am- l broise Fare's famous "Apology," accom- panied by a brief account of the author's life, which it is hoped may stimulate readers to a further study of his works and of the thrilling times in French history in which he was such an active participant. The close contact into which the English-speaking peoples were brought with the French during the late war has led to an awakening of interest in both England and America in the history and traditions of our Gallic allies. Modern France can only be appreciated by a study of its glorious past, a retrospect which will be found to amply justify the Frenchman's national pride. An effort has been made to translate as hterally as possible the old French in which Pare wrote, the French of Montaigne and Rabelais. The task has been difficult because of the many idiomatic expressions, now dis- used, which abound on every page. Nevertheless those who are familiar with Florio's translation of Mon- taigne much prefer its many crudities to the more flow- ing language of subsequent translations. Johnson, the vi FOREWORD earliest English translator of Pare, more nearly ap- proaches the original text than those who have followed him, yet his old English is in many instances too crude for modern readers. It has been well said that trans- lation may be compared to pouring honey from one jar into another ; there is always some of the sweetness lost in the transfer. Therefore the translator would humbly suggest that those who wish to read the real Pare get an edition of his works in the original tongue and learn for themselves what fascinating reading his writings are. Francis R. Packard. CONTENTS PART ONE The Life and Times of Ambroise Pare CHAPTEB PAGE I 1 Political and Religious Setting of the Times. Available Literature about Pare. II 10 Birthplace and Lineal Background. Early Education in Surgery at Vitre and at the Hotel Dieu, Paris. Com- mencement of His Career as Military Surgeon. Ill 27 Campaign Experiences. Admission to the Community of Barber-Surgeons. Marriage to Jean Mazelin. Life near the Pont Saint Michel and at Meudon. Possible Acquaint- anceship with Montaigne. Extraction of a Bullet at Per- pignan. Autopsy on a Wrestler in Lower Brittainy. In- terview with Sylvius. The Siege of Boulogne. Studying Anatomy in Paris. Book on Arquebus Wounds Dedicated to Henri II. Journey to Germany. Amputation by Lig- ature. The Siege of Danvilliers. Appointed Surgeon-in- ordinary to the King. Surgical Experiences at the Siege of Metz. Captured by the Spaniards at the Siege of Hesdin. IV 53 Admission to the College de Saint Come. Controversy Between the Confrerie de Saint Come and the Faculte de Medecine. Preparation of a New Edition of His Work on Anatomy. Military Surgeon at La Fere and Dourlan. Henri II Killed in Tournament. Appointment as Sur- geon to Fran9ois II. The Death of Fran9ois II. Appoint- ment as Surgeon to Charles IX. Incident of the Bezoar viii CONTENTS CHAFTXB PAGB Stone. Publication of a Book on Wounds of the Head and of the "Anatomie Universelle." The Sieges of Bourges and Rouen. Discovery of a New Dressing for Wounds. Appointment as Premier Chirurgien to the King. Publica- tion of a Work on Surgery. Experiences on the Royal Progress through France. Smallpox Epidemic. 74 Dressing the Wound of the Count of Mansfield. Success- ful Treatment of the Due d'Arschot. Attempt to Bring the Surgeons under the Jurisdiction of the Premier Sur- geon to the King. Publication of Treatises on the Plague, Smallpox and Measles. The Massacre of Saint Bartholo- mew. Conjectures Regarding Pare's Religion. Another Book on Surgery. Publication of a Book on Monsters with a Treatise on Obstetrics. VI 97 Death of Pare's Wife. Second Marriage to Jacqueline Rousselet. Records Relating to Pare's Children. Autopsy of Charles IX. Incidents at the Court of Henri III. Complete Edition Dedicated to the King. Opposition by the Faculte de Medecine. Changes Made in the Second Edition. Discourse on Mummy. Latin Edition of Pare's Works. Fourth Collected Edition Answers Gourmelen's Attack by the "Apology and Journeys." The Siege of Paris in 1590. Pare Entreats the Archbishop of Lyons to Help Raise the Siege. Death of Pare at the Age of Eighty. CONTENTS ix PART TWO The Apology and Treatise Containing the Voyages Made INTO Divers Places FAOI The Apology 129 The Journey to Turin, 1536 158 The Journey to Marolles and Low Brittany, 1543 . . .168 The Journey to Perpignan, 1543 174 The Journey to Landrecies, 1544 178 The Journey to Boulogne, 1545 179 The Journey to Germany, 1552 182 The Journey to Danvilliers, 1552 186 The Journey to Chateau le Comte, 1552 190 The Journey to Metz, 1552 193 The Journey to Hesdin, 1553 213 The Battle of Saint Quentin, 1557 240 The Journey to the Camp at Amiens, 1558 244 The Journey to Bourges, 1562 246 The Journey to Rouen, 1562 248 The Journey to the Battle of Dreux, 1562 252 The Journey to Havre de Grace, 1563 254 The Journey to Bayonne, 1564 255 The Battle of Saint Denis, 1567 257 The Journey of the Battle of Moncontour, 1569 .... 258 The Journey to Flanders 262 Index 279 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Title Page of Johnston's Translation Portrait of Fran9ois i . Foot Soldier of the Sixteenth Century Portrait of Francois i . The Hotel Dieu and Notre Dame . A Ward in the Hotel Dieu . Map of Paris in 1530 . Cavalryman in the Sixteenth Century Figure of a Man without Arms Properties Owned by Pare near the Pont Portrait of Henri ii . Ambroise Pare at the Age of Forty-five Gabriel de Lorgues, Comte de Montgom^ Tournament .... Henri ii Receiving His Fatal Wound in Montgomery .... The Deathbed of Henri ii Portrait of Fran9ois ii . Portrait of Charles ix . The Constable Anne de Montmorenci Cutting up a Whale Portrait of Catherine de Medici Portrait of Coligny .... The Murder of Admiral Coligny . Autograph of Ambroise Pare . Saint ery the Michel Arrayed Joust with PAGE Frontispiece Facing 2 9 Facing 1 8 Facing 20 Facing 22 Facing 24 . 25 Facing 34 . 38 Facing 44 Facing 54 for the Facing 58 Facing 58 Facing 62 Facing 62 Facing 64 Facing 70 Facing 70 Facing 78 Facing 82 Facing 82 . 103 Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Ambroise Pare Portrait of Henri iii The Camphur, a Variety of Unicom Said to Have Been Found in Ethiopia The Reduction of Dislocation of the Shoulder Procession of the Leaguers of Paris Map of Paris in 1609 .... Bee de Corbin ...... Notre Dame and the Hotel Dieu . Cavalryman of the Fifteenth Century Reduction of Shoulder Dislocations Bombards on Wheels and a Platform . Arquebus a Rouet and Arquebus a Meche Bombards or Mortars on Movable Carriages Boulogne ..... Portrait of the Due de Guise Removal of the Lance and Arrow Heads Different Kinds of Arrow Heads . Different Sorts of Cauteries . The Tree Which Bears the Incense . Grenadier Lighting His Grenade . Mangonnel or Mangonneau Bullet Forceps Different Types of Cannon French Cannon Battle of Orleans, 1563 . Type of French Soldiers in the Sixteenth Century PAGE Facing 1 04 Facing 106 Facing 116 . 120 . 122 Facing 124 Facing 126 . 133 Facing 150 . 157 Facing 164 . 170 . 171 . 172 Facing 176 Facing 178 . 181 . 185 . 189 . 212 . 239 . 247 . 250 . 251 . 253 Facing 254 Facing 256 Wounded Soldiers 261 AMBROISE PARE THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AMBROISE PARE CHAPTER I T the beginning of the sixteenth century France was experiencing the beneficial results of the well directed efforts of Louis XI and his immedi- ate successors to overcome the power of the great feudal houses and con- centrate all government in the hands of the king. Fran9ois I ascended the throne in 1515, and though the Guises tried to secure the succession to the crown for their family under his grandchildren, the effort was a failure and when at the close of the century Henri IV gained Paris by a mass, the Bourbon line was estab- lished to rule supreme until the Revolution. From the accession of Francois until the accession of Henri the country passed through some of the most 1 2 AMBROISE PARE remarkable episodes in its history. Cruel civil and re- ligious wars, expensive foreign wars — accompanied by- some barren successes but also by stupendous national disasters, especially that of Pavia in 1525, when Fran- 9ois I and the flower of his nobility were defeated and made prisoners or slain — sound projects of reform coun- teracted by the worst political and religious persecu- tion, splendid projects for the prosperity of the land checked by wicked waste of public funds in debauchery and foolish prodigality to royal favorites. Across the scene pass the figures of some of the noblest and of some of the basest persons known to history. Catherine de Medici, the vile Itahan, with her incredible bigotry, ' craft and wickedness; her three degenerate sons, Fran- cois II, Charles IX and Henri III; the family of the Guises, able, unscrupulous, ready to sacrifice anything to fulfil their ambitions, anxious to destroy by any means, no matter how wicked, every Huguenot, and finally committing the frightful crime of St. Bartholo- mew in order that they might do so; Admiral Coligny, the chief antagonist of the Guises, with his brothers; Anne de Montmorenci, the harsh old soldier; Mon- taigne, the most human of philosophers; Rabelais, the doctor and priest, who under the grossest sort of alle- gory, attacked abuses which he dared not touch other- wise ; and hosts of lesser figures, including among them jNIarguerite of Navarre, a royal blue stocking; Mary Cjtdik acme Oicor, o (jraiid'' l\oy tcs iLrnics (^x Monts' invri'lent encore , uu hruxt dc- cjn unmd j\3m: Mais i^mners cntrurr, C/>C7it ten arami J\crion: : Crand^erc, ct Qrand Swort^ ac£ Cccrrcs: ,ct Jes/frmcs-. 7~homas Jc \eu- '^ •' <^^ ouru^c . LIFE AND TIMES 3 Queen of Scots, whose tragic fate serves to obscure her wicked life ; Diane de Poitiers, the elderly but fascinat- ing object of the love of Henri II, who marked with their combined initials the palaces with which he de- lighted to please her. Among them lived and worked one whose fame as a human benefactor will last until the radte is no more, who from the humblest origin rose to high station solely as the result of his own genius, and who in the course of his long life, passed largely at the court or in camps, came to know intimately most of the great figures in the social, military and political life of his country. Ambroise Pare was more than a great surgeon ; his rep- utation for honesty and sagacity was such, that he be- came the confidant and counsellor to many of the cour- tiers and soldiers with whom he came in daily contact. As the Due de Savoi said of him, "he knew other things than surgery." His kindly, genial nature coupled with his good sense, make it easy to comprehend how popu- lar he was in surroundings where feelings of mutual distrust and hatred predominated. In an age when re- ligious hatred was at the reddest heat, we find him at- tending Coligny for his wound and a few hours later being sheltered by the King, who had ordained or at least connived in the massacre of Coligny and his friends. Although frequently accused of Huguenotism, he was surgeon successively to Henri II, Fran9ois II, Charles 4 AMBROISE PARE IX, and Henri III, and the Queen mother, Catherine de Medici, was not only his patient but his friend. There is a voluminous literature available on the life and labors of Ambroise Pare. First we have his own writings, especially the "Apologie et Traite Con- tenant les Voyages Faits en Divers Lieux," which he wrote in 1585, five years before his death. Scattered throughout his other writings are many autobiographic details. In 1840 Malgaigne published his splendid edition of Fare's complete works, prefaced by a resume of the history of surgery and a life of Pare. For facts un- earthed since Malgaigne's time, based on documents not available to him, Le Paulmier's "Ambroise Pare d'ap- res de Nouveaux Documents decouverts aux Archives Rationales et des papiers de famille," published in 1884, is invaluable. Dr. Le Pauhnier has collected a large number of legal documents, processes, and other papers, which clear up many points hitherto obscure in Fare's life. There are also innumerable addresses, discourses, and essays on Ambroise Pare, none of them, however, presenting any evidence of original research on the part of their authors. Le Paulmier discredits the publica- tions of Begin, which the latter claimed were based on an unpublished journal of Pare. As Begin never ex- hibited this journal nor published satisfactory proofs LIFE AND TIMES $ of its authenticity, I think Le Paulmier's doubts were justified. In the early part of the nineteenth century, there was a great revival of interest in the history of Pare among his countrymen, probably because of the inter- est in military surgery awakened by the Napoleonic wars. Much was written about him, but very little pos- sessed historic value. For those who do not read French, the translation of Fare's works entitled, "The Works of the Famous Chirurgien Ambroise Pare, translated out of Latin and compared with the French, by T. Johnson," first pub- hshed in 1634, and subsequently in 1649, 1665, and 1678, is contained in most large medical libraries, and copies are comparatively easy to obtain. Malgaigne directs attention to the fact that at the end of the adver- tisement announcing his book Johnson says, "An Apologie and Voyages, being not in the Latine, but translated out of the last French edition, whom also I have followed in the number of the Books, least any should think some wanting, finding but twenty-six in the Latin, and twenty-nine in the French." In 1897 Stephen Paget published his dehghtful book "Ambroise Pare and His Times," in which he reprints the most interesting portions of the "Journeys in Divers Places," adding historical and biographical details, in such a way as to make a most excellent life of Pare. 6 AMBROISE PARE For contemporary sidelights on the life and times of Pare the "Memoirs - Journaux" of Pierre de L'Es- toile are invaluable. A complete edition of this inter- esting book was published at Paris in 1875. There is also the "Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris sous le Regne de Fran9ois I," which is available in an edition pub- lished by Picard at Paris in 1910. These two books are mines of information on the years they cover. From what we have gleaned concerning Pare, from his own writings and from the writings of his contem- poraries, we are able to form what is probably as cor- rect a mental portrait of the great surgeon as is possible at a distance of over three hundred years. Of his physi- cal characteristics we know but little, save that he must have been of robust physique to endure the continuous hard labor which he sustained for so many years, up to within a short time before his death, at the advanced age of eighty. Not only did he attend to the harass- ing duties of an enormous practice but he also was a voluminous writer and found time for much scien- tific study and research. His labors were but little in- terfered with by illness, his most serious complaint hav- ing been the fractured leg which he sustained by the kick of a horse. He was bitten by a viper but, as he tells us, without \serious consequences, because of the prompt treatment he administered himself. An at- tack of plague was his only grave medical illness and LIFE AND TIMES 7 from it he recovered with nothing more serious than a large scar left by a sore. His writings speak for the verve and esprit of his mind. He was a Frenchman, a Frenchman writing scientific works with a logical incisiveness and art which make their perusal a pleasurable as well as a profitable pursuit. The relations of his discoveries and experi- ences are all narrated in the simplest language and bear the imprint of exact observation and truthful explica- tion. Pare loved a good story and his works are full of them. He loved his fellowmen with a broad, gentle humanity and liked to foregather with them. From the references to good living which he lets fall from his pen he was probably of a convivial turn but there is cer- tainly no reason to believe that this genial spirit ever led him to excesses. Although disputes have raged as to whether he was a Catholic or Protestant, there can be no doubt of his sincere piety. In all his writings there are constant references to God and one of his most quoted sayings is that in which he attributes the recovery of his patients to a divine providence. His benevolence and charity are shown under many different circumstances, to his relations, to his friends, to his patients of all classes, but especially to the poor common soldiers, who on many occasions showed their appreciation of it. Contrast the kindly irony with 8 AMBROISE PARE which he attacks "mon petit maitre" Gourmelen, after the latter had assailed him in the bitterest fashion, with the invectives hurled by others at the heads of those who differed from them on scientific or other matters. Pare accumulated a large estate. He owned a group of houses near the Pont St. Michael and a vine- yard at Meudon, in addition to much personal prop- erty. He made generous use of it, aiding his own poor relatives and the relatives of his wife, and giving aid to many who had no such claimi upon him. At a time when political or religious antagonism led to personal attacks against any adversary, and when the vilest libels were circulated about any prominent personage who had incurred enmity on account of his actions or opinions it is an added testimony to the worth of Fare's character that the only attacks made upon him were due to professional jealousy. Though inspired by the blackest malice, the authors of these maledictions could find no reproach with which to blacken the personal character of the high-souled man who was the object of their hatred. Sully, the great prime minister of Henri IV, refers to Pare in his memoirs, and the two men were probably thrown together at various times in the course of the long periods which both passed in connection with the court. In the preface to his "Chronique du Regne de Charles IX," Prosper Merimee says it is not in Mez- LIFE AND TIMES 9 eray, but in Montluc, Brantome, d'Aubigne, Tavannes, La Noue, etc., that one forms an idea of the French- man of the sixteenth century. To these names he might well have added that of Pare. Foot soldier in the sixteenth century. {Lacroiic.) CHAPTER II MBROISE PARE was born at Bourg Hersent, a little village which now forms part of the city of Laval, in the old prov- ince of Maine. No trace of Pare or of his family now remains there. In 1840 a bronze statue of Pare by David was erected in Laval by public subscription. At that time the statement was made that a house, still standing, bore an inscrip- tion stating that Pare was born within it. The year of his birth has been the subject of much dispute. Mal- gaigne, after a careful consideration of all the facts available to him, was inclined to place it in 1517, but Le Paulmier proves, I believe conclusively, that he was born in 1510. This assertion is based partly on the in- ternal evidence of certain passages in his writings, partly on the dates borne on authentic portraits, and lastly on the distinct assertion of Pierre L'Estoile, who wrote, "Thursday, twentieth of December 1590, the eve of Saint Thomas, died at Paris in his own house. Master Ambroise Pare, surgeon to the King, aged eighty years, a learned man and the chief of his art." His father was, according to some, a cabinet-maker, 10 LIFE AND TIMES ii but others, on probably better traditional evidence, state that he was valet de chambre and barber to the Sieur de Laval. Several of his near relatives were in medical occupations. Thus his sister Catherine married Gas- pard Martin, a master barber-surgeon of Paris. He died following an amputation of the leg performed upon him by Pare. In a pamphlet written by a surgeon named Comperat, Pare was accused of having been more or less responsible for his brother-in-law's death, because he had used the method of ligation of the vessels to check the hemorrhage at the operation, instead of cauterizing the stump. A brother, Jean, whom Pare greatly praises for his skill in detecting the frauds of beggars who shammed diseases and deformities, was a master barber-surgeon at Vitre, and Pare is supposed to have studied with him at any rate for a time. He had another brother, also named Jean, who was a cabinet-maker in Paris. Pare adopted his daughter Jeanne, giving her a handsome dot when she married Claude Viart, a surgeon of Paris, who had lived twenty years in Pare's house as his pupil. There is very little reliable information regarding Pare's early years. According to one of the traditions given by Percy, Pare's father put him to board with a chaplain in order that he might learn Latin. The priest, however, made Ambroise perform menial tasks 12 AMBROISE PARE in his garden and stable, troubling himself but little about his education. On leaving this ecclesiastical fraud Pare was apprenticed, the report runs, to a sur- geon of Laval named Vialot, who taught him the art of bleeding. While with Vialot, the story goes, Law- rence Colot came to Laval to perform a lithotomy. Pare assisted at the operation and was so thrilled with enthusiasm that he determined to go at once to Paris and study surgery under the best masters obtainable. Malgaigne knocks out this pretty legend, however, by showing that Colot was taught the art of operating for stone by Ottaviano da Villa, an itinerant lithotomist, who had learned the method of operating by the "Grand Appareil" from Mariano Sancto, and did not impart it to Colot until after Mariano's death which did not oc- cur until 1543. It is improbable that Colot would in 1530 have been called to operate anjrwhere, and he cer- tainly at that time knew nothing about the operation by which he was subsequently to attain such fame. All that we know definitely about Pare during this period may be gathered from a few statements of his own, which have been interpreted as indicating that he began the study of surgery first at Angers, or possibly at Vitre with his brother Jean. In his book on "Mon- sters" Pare tells of seeing at Angers in 1525 a beggar who was at the door of the "temple," as Huguenot chapels were then called, seeking alms because of a sup- LIFE AND TIMES 13 posedly diseased arm which he exposed to the view of the passers-by. In reality the impostor had cut an arm from a man who had been recently executed and, hanging it around his neck so that it projected from under his cloak, had made it appear that the decomposing mem- ber was one of his own. Unfortunately for him it be- came detached and fell to the ground, and when he tried to pick it up he was seen to have two good arms of his own. He was taken before a magistrate who had him publicly whipped, with the criminal's arm hang- ing around his neck, and then banished from the town. In the same book of "Monsters" Pare tells how he saw his brother, Jean, "a surgeon dwelling in Vitre," detect a beggar woman, who stood "at the door of the temple one Sunday," feigning that she had a cancer of the breast by exposing to public view what seemed to be a hideous sore. Jean Pare observed her carefully and, noting that she was fat and well-nourished, with a healthy color, had her taken before a magistrate, who in turn sent her with Pare's brother to his office for a thorough examination. He found that she had a sponge under her armpit soaked in some animal's blood mixed with milk. When she squeezed the sponge the mixture was conducted by a small tube over her breast. She also was whipped for her wickedness. One year later Ambroise saw, as he tells us in his *'Monsters," his brother Jean once more display his 14 AMBROISE PARE skill as a detector of such impostors. This time the beggar counterfeited leprosy at the door of a "temple." Suspecting the man to be an impostor he took him be- fore a magistrate, who sent him to his house for a more thorough examination. When the imposture was there- by proved, the beggar was whipped. The spectators, evidently aware of the anesthesia which accompanies certain forms of leprosy, yelled to the executioner to whip him hard, saying, "He does not feel it, he is a leper." Thus encouraged the executioner went at his work with such vigor that the beggar died as the result of the whipping. The three references to the "temple" in the above stories have been taken as evidence that Pare, at any rate during one period of his life, was a Huguenot.. Le Paulmier conjectures that the year which elapsed between the two detections which he states he saw his brother make was passed by Ambroise at Vitre studying with Jean. Although this brother Jean is generally spoken of as a "barber-surgeon," it should be noticed that Pare speaks of him distinctly as a "sur- geon." It is presumed that Pare's master in the prov- inces was a barber-surgeon because in the address to the readers of his anatomy, published in 1552, he distinctly states that he knew neither Greek nor Latin, as would have been required of a surgeon. When he came to LIFE AND TIMES 15 Paris in 1532 or 1533 he was certainly apprenticed to a barber-surgeon. When Pare came to Paris the medical profession of that city was sharply divided into three classes. First came the physicians, members of the Faculte de INIedecine who held their heads very high. They arro- gated to themselves the right of control over all who attempted to practice the healing art in any of its branches. The second class was composed of the sur- geons, incorporated in the Confrerie de Saint Come, and ordinarily termed surgeons of the long robe because of the garment they were authorized to wear. The community of the barber-surgeons held third place. Malgaigne gives in his introduction to Pare's works a long and learned account of the controversies which raged for generations between these three bodies. The surgeons were ground between the upper and the nether millstone, the physicians constantly check- ing them in any attempt to practice medicine and the barber-surgeons frequently encroaching on the field of surgical practice. The surgeons of the long robe would not condescend to operate. They confined themselves to the treatment of surgical conditions by the applica- tion of plasters and ointments, the use of the cautery, and the treatment of wounds and abscesses. The barber- surgeons practiced venesection, cupping and leeching, and were constantly extending their field by attempting i6 AMBROISE PARE operations, dressing wounds, etc. There were sev- eral groups of empirical practitioners who did much real surgery. Thus the "incisors" cut for stone and oper- ated for hernia. They were tolerated rather than au- thorized to practice. In many instances they were very skillful as well as daring. At a later period we find in this class the two celebrated monks, Frere Jacques and Frere Come, who were most expert lithotomists. Others in this group operated for cataract. The treat- ment of fractures and dislocations was largely in the hands of the "rabouteurs" or bonesetters. All these empirics were peripatetics, wandering from city to city, generally having to leave each place after a time be- cause of the jealousy excited in the regular faculty by their skill. Obstetrics was left in the hands of mid- wives, some of whom attained great renown for their ability. Malgaigne shows us the facilities for learning pos- sessed by barber-surgeons at this time and the good use they made of their opportunities, in marked con- trast to the laziness and ineptitude of the surgeons of St. Come at Paris. While the Faculty of Medicine and the surgeons of Montpellier translated the works of the ancients, Hippocrates, Galen, and Paul of ^gina into French, and published them so that they might be available to the barber-surgeons, men un- learned in Latin and Greek, the Faculty of Medicine LIFE AND TIMES 17 and the surgeons of Paris confined themselves entirely to Latin in such works as they put forth. From 1534 to 1537, when Jean Tagault served as dean of the Faculty of IMedicine of Paris, he was charged with the duty of reading the course of lectures on the works of Gui de Chauliac, which was the meager surgical pabulum afforded by the Faculty of ^Medicine to those who studied surgery under its auspices. He had already conceived the idea of publishing these lec- tures when he was further stimulated to do so by the following circumstance. Fran9ois I had been led by the frequency of the wars in which he was involved to a realization of the necessity for the improvement of surgery in his realm. One day as he dined at Cardinal du Bellai's, having behind him, according to etiquette, his three physicians, he expressed his intention of establishing a course of surgery in Paris to be conducted by one or two quali- fied physicians. This intention was conveyed to Jean Tagault and he hastened to complete his work in the hope that he might be chosen to fill the new position. But his haste was in vain. His "Institutiones Chirur- gicales" was published in 1543, but in 1542 the King had already appointed Vidus Vidius, of Florence, Premier Medecin du Roi and lecturer on surgery in the College de France. Malgaigne explains the ap- i8 AMBROISE PARE pointment of this foreigner instead of Tagault as fol- lows: Vidus Vidius had a patron, Cardinal Rodolpho, who had discovered a Greek manuscript containing the commentaries of Galen on the surgical works of Hip- pocrates in much more complete form than any hith- erto known. This manuscript had been translated into Latin by Vidus Vidius, who had carefully collated it with such other manuscripts as were accessible in Rome, and supplied commentaries of his own on such works of Hippocrates as were not commented upon by Galen. The book was published with a dedication to Fran- cois I, and the Cardinal also presented the original Greek manuscript to the King. Vidus Vidius was, therefore, summoned to Paris to fill the chair, which he held from 1542 to 1547. On the death of Fr&ncois I he returned to Florence. Poor Tagault had died in 1545. The Latin works of Vidus Vidius and Tagault, however much they might aid surgery, were of little use to the unlettered barbers who were ignorant of that tongue. Nevertheless, these barber-surgeons were almost the only practitioners doing real surgery in Paris, except the unauthorized empirics. Thus the barbers were prosectors to the anatomical lecturers of the Faculty of Medicine, thereby acquirmg some prac- tical knowledge of anatomy, which they used in dress- LIFE AND TIMES 19 ing wounds and fractures, practicing bleeding and per- forming many operations, while the surgeons of Saint Come, not deigning to actually dissect the body and standing aloof from all surgical procedures except the application of plasters and ointments, had developed into a set of useless drones who hindered the progress of real surgical science. As textbooks Pare used the works of Gui de Chau- liac and Jean de Vigo, both of which had been trans- lated from Latin into French, especially for the benefit of students of surgery. As a barber-surgeon's appren- tice he had, no doubt, to perform many of the tasks falling to the lot of such unfortunates, but we have ab- solutely no authentic light on this part of his career. Probably the fact that he does not refer to it subse- quently was because it was not all beer and skittles and left an unpleasant impression on his mind. There has recently been published a most interesting little book on the life of the medical students of the sixteenth century in Paris, ^ in which there is a fascinating pic- ture of the turbulent Hfe led by the medical student of that time, with side glimpses of the barber-surgeons. Pare, however, did not remain long in the barber's shop. He very soon became, in what manner or through what influence is not known, compagnon chirurgien at 'Les Etudiants en M^decine de Paris au XVI Siecle Essai Historique, par le Docteur Henri de Boyer de Choisy. 20 AMBROISE PARE the Hotel Dieu, a position similar to a modern interne- ship or resident surgeoncy. Until the reign of Henri IV, the Hotel Dieu was the sole public hospital in Paris. Accordingly, it admitted not only the injured and those sick of ordinary diseases, but also the sufferers who fell victims to the various epidemic diseases which invaded Paris from time to time. The Hotel Dieu, founded in the seventh century by Saint Landry, was under the supervision of the chapter of Canons of Notre Dame in Fare's time. The care of the sick was in the hands of a number of lay brothers and sisters. One of the lay brothers had the direction of the management of the hospital with the title of Master of the Hotel Dieu. In 1505 owing to a condition of disorder and neglect of the sick the Par- liament of Paris nominated a commission of eight citi- zens of Paris to manage the temporal affairs of the hospital. About a year after Pare terminated his resi- dency in the Hotel Dieu a grand row occurred. Cer- tain monks and nuns objected to measures for the re- form of the hospital and it was found necessary to re move them from its service. Some scholars sided with them and were so rebellious that the authorities com- mitted them to prison. It is very difficult to ascertain just what were the duties and privileges of the students admitted to the Hotel Dieu. In 1327 Charles IV had ordered that LIFE AND TIMES 21 two of the sworn surgeons of the Chatelet should visit the sick at the Hotel Dieu and had provided that a certain number of students should be employed in dress- ing wounds and other duties. Malgaigne conjectures that the students treated the sick and injured and had the opportunity to perform autopsies and dissect cadavers. When mentioning his life there, Pare certainly speaks as though he had ob- tained plenty of such invaluable experience during his connection with the hospital. In the occasional refer- ences contained in his works to his residency we detect the pleasure and pride with which he looked upon it in retrospect. Pare left the Hotel Dieu about 1536 after serving within it, he tells us in one place, for three years, and in another, for four years, and acquiring a large fund of practical knowledge. It is curious that Pare nowhere in his writings makes the slightest allusion by which we can discover the names of any of his teachers or masters during his apprenticeship or while living at the Hotel Dieu. What renders this circumstance especially odd is the freedom with which he alludes by name to the surgeons and physicians and even barber-surgeons, with whom he came in contact during the rest of his career. The long life of Pare covers a most interesting pe- riod in the history of France. He was born towards the close of the life of Louis XII, and his death 22 AMBROISE PARE occurred after the death of Henri III, and shortly be- fore Henri IV was crowned King of France. Three crowned heads kept the European world in a turmoil throughout a large part of the first half of the six- teenth century — Charles V, Emperor of Germany, Henry VIII, King of England, and Fran9ois I, King of France — all coming to the throne when young and vigorous, gifted with intellect and force of character, and imposing their personalities on the affairs and peo- ples of their domains. Fran9ois I was fired with am- bition to rule over certain parts of Italy, of which he claimed the inheritance, and his desires in this respect brought him into direct conflict with the Emperor. Henry VIII allied himself first with one and then with the other, on whichever side he thought would best serve his own interests. Another source of conflict was the claim of Charles to the Duchy of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Na- varre, former appanages of the French crown. After many fruitless Italian campaigns in which a few bril- liant military successes only served to involve the French more hopelessly in the toils, came the final dis- aster at Pavia, February 24, 1525. A splendid French army commanded by the King in person was over- whelmingly defeated by the Imperial troops under Lannoy and Charles of Bourbon, the former Constable of France, who had become a traitor and left his coun- fili- A Ward in the Hotel Uieu {From a seventeenth-century enyraviny.) LIFE AND TIMES 23 try to serve against it under Charles V. Ten thousand French were slain, among them many of the nobility and numerous officers of high rank. The King of France, the King of Navarre, the Count of St. Pol, the Mareschal Anne de Montmorenci, and many other nobles and leaders were made prisoners. The King passed six months of captivity in Spain before he se- cured his release on the most humihating terms, having to send two of his sons, one of them the future Henri II, to take his place as hostages, before he could return to his kingdom. Once among his subjects Francois declared that he did not consider himself bound by the terms of the treaty which had been agreed to while he was a prisoner at Madrid because it had been made while he was under constraint. War was resumed and kept up until 1529, when the Peace of Cambrai was negotiated by Louise of Savoy, mother of the French King, with the Archduchess Marguerite, the aunt of the Emperor, for which reason it is often known as the "Paix aux Dames." The years immediately following this, however, were spent by Fran9ois in cementing alliances and strengthening his forces for another conflict with the Emperor. He allied himself with Henry VIII, and in 1534-5 even entered into a treaty with the Turks. In 1535 Francisco Sforza, Duke of Milan, died and the 24 AMBROISE PARE King of France at once put forth his claims to the Duchy, sending an expedition into Italy to back them up. Charles V in return led a large army into Pro- vence. Anne de Montmorenci commanded the army which defended France against this invasion. He con- tented himself with retreating before the imperialists, devastating the country as he went. The large towns, such as Marseilles, were too strongly fortified and gar- risoned to be taken by the Emperor and in consequence he was compelled to retire with his army, lest it should starve in the wasted country. When the imperialists retreated Anne de Montmorenci carried the war into Italy, passing the Alps after a successful engagement at the Pas de Suze. After some more or less desultory fighting peace was declared in November, 1537. It was in this campaign that Pare began his career as a military surgeon, crossing the Alps with the army and finally sojourning for some time at Turin. Though he had not yet passed his examinations to be admitted to the community of the barber-surgeons he went in the capacity of surgeon to Mareschal de Monte j an, col- onel-general of the French Infantry. As he did not take his examinations for admission as a barber-sur- geon until 1541, Le Paulmier thinks that owing to the narrowness of his resources he went with the army as the only means open to him. He could not legally PARIS IN 15iO ( (/ Ih, Wop by Gto s, B mn) LIFE AND TIMES 25 practice in Paris until he had passed the barber-sur- geons' examination. From now on we know much of his life and per- sonality from his own writings, especially from the "Apologie et Traite contenant les Voyages faits en di- vers Lieux, par Ambroise Pare, de Laval, Conseiller et Premier Chirurgien de Roi," published at Paris in the fourth edition of his collected works in 1585, five years before his death. This book was written as an answer to one published in 1580 by Etienne Gourmelen, in which he attacked Pare and brought to bear all the opinions of the ancients to prove that his treatment of wounds and his use of the ligature in amputations was wrong. This is the book of which we offer here a new and complete translation. Paget has given a most delight- ful rendering of the most interesting portions of the "Apology," but he omits the first portion in which Pare quotes from many of the ancients to prove that the merit of his discovery lay not in the use of the ligature but in its application to amputations. As so many persons continue to refer to Pare as "the discoverer of the hgature," it is well for all to learn from his own writings that he distinctly disclaims any such title to fame. The racy style in which the book is written re- veals very little trace of its author's advanced years, although he occasionally waxes somewhat garrulous 26 AMBROISE PARE in Jiis stories. He continually refers to his opponent as mon petit maitre and he garnishes the margin of his pages with charming notes, many of them exhibiting a naive vanity and a bonhomie which is most delightful. Cavalryman in the sixteenth century. (Lacroix.) CHAPTER III N his very first campaign Pare made the great discovery that boiling oil was not only of no use, but actually hurtful in gunshot wounds. All the authorities on gunshot wounds prior to this had taught that they were poisoned, envenomed by the powder, and that in order to counteract the poison they should be treated with burning oil. The French troops after a bloody fight had captured the castle of Villaine. Pare dressed the wounded in the accepted fashion with boiling oil, stat- ing that he had read in John of Vigo that gunshot wounds were venomous because of the powder and must be cauterized with boihng oil to destroy the poison. But, owing to the great number to be dressed, "at length my oil lacked and I was constrained to apply in its place a digestive made of yolks of eggs, oil of roses and turpentine. That night I could not sleep at my ease, fearing that by lack of cauterization I would find the wounded upon which I had not used the said oil dead from the poison. I raised myself very early to visit them, when beyond my hope I found those to whom I had applied the digestive medicament 27 28 AMBROISE PARE feeling but little pain, their wounds neither swollen nor inflamed, and having slept through the night. The others to whom I had applied the boiling oil were fever- ish, with much pain and swelling about their wounds. Then I determined never again to burn thus so cruelly the poor wounded by arquebuses." A curious light on the life of the soldier of the time is given by Pare in his narrative of this campaign. Seeking a stable in which to put the horses of his man and himself, he came upon the bodies of four dead and three wounded soldiers lying against a wall. The wounded were terribly disfigured, unconscious, and their clothing yet burning from the powder. An old soldier came up and regarding them with pity asked Pare if there was anything he could do for them. Pare replied in the negative, whereupon the soldier pro- ceeded to cut their throats "doucement et sans cholere." Watching the action Pare exclaimed that the seasoned veteran was a bad man. The old soldier repHed to the young surgeon that he prayed to God if he were ever in a similar case he would find someone to do the same for him rather than that he should languish miserably. On this journey Pare illustrates the persistence with which he sought any information which could be of value in his work. While at Turin he met a sur- geon who claimed to possess an invaluable balm for dressing wounds made by arquebuses. Pare pursued LIFE AND TIMES 29 him for two years with persuasions and gifts to ehcit his secret. Finally the surgeon confided to him that his wonderful recipe consisted of newborn puppies boiled in oil of lilies, mixed with earthworms pre- pared with oil of Venice. He was willing to derive knowledge from every source, no matter how unlearned or humble it might be. Having met an old woman who advised him to apply raw onions and salt to burns, he promptly tried the remedy, and, finding it useful, con- tinued its application in such cases. Throughout his life he lost no opportunity thus to study the methods employed by empirics, quacks, and laymen, consider- ing no source of information unworthy of his notice if thereby he could acquire knowledge that might be of value. Pare often tells of how his services were sought on every side by the wounded. Finally Monsieur de Mon- te j an fell ill of an hepatic flux which ultimately proved fatal. He sent for a distinguished physician of Milan to come to Turin and treat him. Pare lost no oppor- tunity of working with this learned doctor, who in his turn was a witness of the skill and hard work of the young surgeon. "So much so that one day the doctor said to the Marshal, 'You have a surgeon youthful in age, but old in knowledge and experience; regard him well for he will be of service and honor.' But the good 30 AMBROISE PARE man did not know that I had lived three years at the Hotel Dieu de Paris, to heal the sick there." After the death of de Monte j an, the Mareschal d'Annebaut, who succeeded him in command of the soldiers, be- sought Pare to remain as his surgeon, but Pare refused his offer and returned to Paris in 1539, where he studied hard, especially anatomy, in order that he might be admitted as a barber-surgeon. In 1541, as stated above, he passed his examination and became a master barber- surgeon. As Le Paulmier shows, Pare underwent two examinations for his admission to the Community of the Barber-Surgeons. Possibly he failed to pass the first time he was examined, thus necessitating the sec- ond examination. Le Paulmier says that he had his first examination at the end of the year 1540 or the com- mencement of 1541, and he gives the following extract from the records of the Faculte de Medicine regarding his second examination which took place later in 1541: "A Rasoribus de novo examinatis: A duobus rasoribus qui anno praeterito examinati fuerant, videlicet, ab Ambrosio Parre (sic), 72 sols 6 deniers parisis. Theodorico de Heri, 72 sols 6 deniers parisis." The examinations for admission to the Barber-Surgeons were at that time conducted under the auspices of the Faculty of Medicine. This document was unknown LIFE AND TIMES 31 to Malgaigne who thought that Pare had been received into the Barber-Surgeons in 1536. Theodore, or Thierry de Hery, like Pare, had studied at the Hotel Dieu, and had then accompanied the French army as surgeon during the Italian cam- paign. He and Pare studied anatomy together. Pare frequently refers to him as a skilful surgeon and a good man. In 1552 he published a book on the treatment of venereal diseases. He died about 1561. In 1541 Pare married Jeanne Mazelin, daughter of Jean INIazelin, a deceased "valet chauffe-cire de la Chancellerie de France." Her mother, nee Jeanne de Prime, had remarried with one Etienne Cleret, a mer- chant and bourgeois of Paris. The witnesses on the side of the bride were the widow of Odo de Prime, master barber surgeon of Paris, and Mery de Prime, merchant and bourgeois of Paris. Jeanne's dot con- sisted of six hundred livres tournois, with her habille- ments fiUccudcc. Pare^ settled two hundred livres tour- nois on the bride. On the back of his copy of his mar- riage contract Pare wrote, "Traite de mon mariage premier."- It is curious to notice that Pare had two daughters who bore the name of Catherine, one by his first wife, the other by his second, although the first ^This, with many other invaluable documents bearing on Pare, was unearthed bv Le Paulmier among the archives of the CHateau de Paley in the possession of Madame la Marquise Le Charron. Her husband was a direct descendant of the great surgeon by his daughter Catherine, the child of his second wife, who married Claude Hedelin. 32 AMBROISE PARE Catherine was living when the second was born. The identity of names has given rise to some confusion. Pare and his wife lived on the left bank of the Seine near the end of the Pont Saint Michel in the parish of St. Andre des Arts. In the course of his life Pare ac- quired quite a few houses in this neighborhood near what is now the Quai des Grand Augustines and he also owned a house and vineyard in Meudon. The church of St. Andre des Arts and the houses of Pare have all disappeared in the course of modern improve- ments. Rabelais was cure of Meudon at the time when Pare had his vineyard there and it would be curious if they had not met, for Rabelais had studied medicine as well as theology and we owe to him a translation of some of the works of Hippocrates. However, as there is no reference made by either of them in his writings to the other, and as no other evidence of any connection between them exists, we cannot know that they fore- gathered together. A contemporary of Pare with whom one feels he had much in common was Montaigne (1533-1592). Montaigne was on intimate terms with many of the courtiers and nobles of his tmie and he and Pare must have had mutual acquaintances. Furthermore they were both officers of the court of Henri III, Pare being his chief surgeon, and Montaigne one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber. In Chapter xx, Book 1, of Mon- LIFE AND TIMES 33 taigne's "Essays" he tells how once when he was at Vitry-le-Francois he "happened to see a man whom the Bishop of Soissons had in confirmation named Ger- maine, and all the inhabitants thereabout have knowne and scene to be a woman-child until she was two and twentie years of age, and called by the name of Marie. He was, when I saw him, of good years, and had a long beard, and was yet unmarried. He saith, that upon a time leaping, and straining himselfe to overleape an- other, he wot not how, but where before he was a woman he suddenly felt the instrument of a man to come out of him; and to this day the maidens of that towne and countrie have a song in use, by which they warne one another, when they are leaping, not be straine them- selves overmuch, or open their legs too wide, for feare they should be turned to boys, as Marie Germaine was." Pare in his book on "Monsters," in the seventh chapter, says that when he was at Vitry-le-Fran9ois in the suite of King Charles IX, he also saw INIarie Ger- maine. He tells practically the same story as Mon- taigne, except that the change of sex occurred, according to his informant, in the fifteenth year. It is possible that both were travelling with the Court at the time when this prodigy was seen. Again, Montaigne^ writes of a mountebank whom he saw "being a child, that with the bending and wind- *Essays, Book I, Chapter xxii, Florio's translation. 34 AMBROISE PARE ing of his necke, (because he had no hands) would brandish a two-hand-sword, and manage a Holbard, as nimbly as any man could doe with his hands: he would cast them in the aire, then receive them againe, he would throw a Dagger, and make a whip to yarke and lash, as cunningly as any Carter in France." And in another place: "Not long since in mine owne house, I saw a little man, who at Nantes was borne without armes, and hath so well fashioned his feet to those serv- ices, his hands should have done him, that in truth they have almost forgotten their natural office. In all his discourses he nameth them his hands, he carveth any meat, he chargeth and shoots off a pistole, he threads a needle, he soweth, he writeth, puts off his caj), comb- eth his head, plaieth at cards and dice; shuffleth them and handleth them with a great dexteritie as any other man that hath the perfect use of his hands: the monie I have sometimes given him, he hath carried away with his feet, as well as any other could doe with his hands." In the 1573 edition of his works, Pare writes in his book on "Monsters" of seeing when in Paris a man, about forty years old, who had no arms, yet was able to crack a whip by means of his shoulder and neck and could play cards or throw dice with his feet. He men- tions that he eventually turned out to be a thief and a murderer, who was hanged and broken on the wheel. This may have been the man seen by Montaigne ^^ ,^-fr< y3 ^s::::::^^ Figure of a Man Without Arms. (Pard, Edition 1585.) LIFE AND TIMES 37 for the descriptions of the feats these men performed are very similar. Apparentlj^ there were a number of such prodigies, however, because JNIalgaigne shows that Rueff in his book "De Conceptu et Generatione," published in 1554, describes one, and Lycosthenes in 1557 copied Rueff's picture and added to it the hatchet and whip. Lycosthenes refers his case to the year 1528. Pierre I'Estoile saw such a man in Paris on February 10, 1586. He says this man was a native of Nantes, and was about forty years old. The only incident Pare records of his life at Meu- don is in Chapter xix of his "Monsters." In this place he mentions that he had ordered some large stones broken up, and in the middle of one of them was found a big live frog. As Pare found no opening in the stone, he regarded this as a proof of the possibility of spontaneous generation. The incident may be re- garded as indicative of an interest in his little country place. We may imagine Pare seeking rest from his arduous work in the pleasures of country life on the property which he had been able to purchase by his life of self-sacrificing labor. Le Paulmier gives a small map of the territory near the end of the Pont Saint Michel, showing the houses which were owned by Pare, and occupied by him or his relatives. He acquired these one by one, first purchas- ing the Maison de la Vache in 1550. Some of these 38 AMBROISE PARE properties were obtained by selling out his brother-in- law, Antoine Mazelin, to secure payment of a bad debt. Apparently Pare bought in the property to save it from other creditors. At any rate the arrangement by Ji MiuMn- cUJhtiumnat. D Passage Jtpendaiti <2» uttt-^^t'040tf. et> tervatft a, aer/der a. lorMaijen. E C ' Miusoivde'McrydtiPhma. D Jl£tui>w dc Paris. E Mnisiyn de Jeanne tl<iri F Ceur cU hz. fjizisaa- O G Mautm- dc' la, Ticulw. B Miisoriy dC'Perur 1 K Jtfaison, de- Gi4ccut/ aPtcpaMMt' I. ' L Crurde-la-JLtutm-H. H MaiJ^n.dttTroitJKorti. Properties Owned by Pare near the Pont Saint Michel. {he Paulmier.) which Pare got possession was amicable, for Mazehn was godfather to one of his children long afterward. By Jeanne Mazelin, Pare had three children. On July 4, 1545, their son Francois was baptized at the church of St. Andre des Arts. One of his godfathers was a physician, Fran9ois de Villeneuve, the other a barber, Loys Drouet. His godmother was Jeanne de Prime. This child died sometime before the 5th of LIFE AND TIMES 3Q August, 1549, because in signing a legal document on that date the Pares state that they are childless. Fourteen years later a second son, appropriately named Isaac, was bom to Pare. He was baptized on August 11, 1559. His godfathers were Antoine Mazelin, his uncle, and Nicole Lambert, ordinary sur- geon to the king. His godmother was Anne du Tillet, wife of Etienne Lallemant, conseiller du Roy. This child lived less than one year, his funeral occurring on August 2, 1560. About a year after the death of this son a daughter was born who was baptized Catherine, on September 30, 1560. Her godfather was Gaspard Martin, the barber-surgeon who had married Pare's sister. One of her godmothers was Catherine Briou, wife of Loys de Prime, wine merchant. The other godmother was Mar- guerite Cleret, widow of Etienne Cleret, and the third was Jehanne de Prime. This daughter grew up, mar- ried Fran9ois Rousselet, the brother of her father's second wife, and died September 21, 1616. Although Pare himself gives 1543 as the date of his journey to Perpignan, he is evidently in error as the siege of Perpignan occurred in the autumn of 1542 The town was occupied by Spanish soldiers. Pare went as a surgeon with ^lonsieur de Rohan and rode so hard to reach his post that he suffered an attack of hema- turia. At Perpignan he displayed his astuteness in the 40 AMBROISE PARE case of Monsieur de Brissac, Grand Master of the Ar- tillery. De Brissac received an arquebus shot in his shoulder. Three or four of the best surgeons of the army sought in vain to locate the ball. Pare was sum- moned to his bedside. He at once made de Brissac as- sume the position in which he was at the time he re- ceived the wound. Pare then after a brief search lo- cated the ball and it was easily removed. This nar- rative has appended to it one of the charming little mar- ginal notes with which Pare annotated his book and which display the naivete and simpleness of heart of the author. Thus to the statement that he made the patient assume the posture in which he was wounded, Pare appends the note "addresse de I'Auteur." The French broke camp at Perpignan and Pare returned to Paris. In 1543, Pare resumed his military career, again as surgeon to Monsieur de Rohan at Marolles and in Lower Brittany. The English had sent a fleet de- signed to land in Brittany, but the French gathered in such force that they did not attempt a landing but sailed away. The French remained a short time in camp and Pare tells us of the rough sports with which they whiled away the time. Monsieur d'Estampes got the Bretons to come into camp where they displayed their dances and other sports. A wrestling match was held in which one of the participants was killed; LIFE AND TIMES 41 Pare opened the body of the dead wrestler. Finally Pare left the camp and returned to Paris. Monsieur de Laval gave him a horse for his man servant and Monsieur d'Estampes presented him with a diamond worth thirty ecus. In 1544 he was with the army sent by Fran9ois I to victual Landrecy but saw no actual fighting. Le Paulmier shows that JNIalgaigne was wrong in his supposition that it was not until after his return from Perpignan that Pare had his famous interview with Sylvius. Le Paulmier states that it was in 1539 that Jacobus Sylvius (Jacques Dubois) professor of medicine at Paris and memorable as the ardent sup- porter of Galen against the school of anatomists led by his former pupil Vesalius, sought out the young army surgeon who had already achieved an honorable reputation and was held in much esteem. Sylvius asked him to dine with him and was so much impressed with the importance of Pare's views on the treatment of arquebus wounds, particularly as to placing the patient in the position in which he was at the time he received his wound, that he urged him to publish them. The young man followed his advice, but it was not until 1545 that he published his first book entitled, "La methode de traicter les playes faictes par hacque- butes et aultres bastons a feu: et de celles qui sont faictes par fleches, dardz, et semblables : aussi des com- 42 AMBROISE PARE bustions specialement faictes par le pouldre a canon: compose par Ambroyse Pare, maistre barbier-chirur- gien a Paris." This book was dedicated to M. de Ro- han and made the fame of its author. It was reprinted in 1552 and again in 1564, and subsequently, with addi- tions based on the author's experiences in later years, was included as part of his surgery in his collected works. In 1545 Pare was with the army at the siege of Boulogne, during which the Due Francois de Guise re- ceived a severe wound. He received the nickname Balafre from the terrible scar. Although most writers state that Pare was the surgeon who attended Guise on this occasion, Pare himself relates the story without stating that he had any part in it. A lance entered the head of the Duke above the right eye, passed down through the nose and emerged between the nucha and the ear on the opposite side. The iron head of the lance with a portion of its wooden shaft remained in the wound. Pare states, "in such fashion that it could not be withdrawn without great violence, even with a black- smith's pinchers." Malgaigne believed that if Pare had himself been the surgeon who accomplished the cure, he certainly would have mentioned the fact. The belief that it was Pare who performed the operation and cure is based on the narrative of the occurrence given in an anonymous "Life of Admiral Coligny," pubhshed at LIFE AND TIMES 43 Paris in 1686, nearly a century and a half after the accident, in which the author states that Pare, "sur- geon to the king," withdrew the lance head with smith's pincers. Malgaigne in transcribing the story as given by the anonymous author points out that at that time Pare was not "surgeon to the king" and directs atten- tion to the fact that Pare wrote his first account of the case in 1552, and repeated it in all the subsequent edi- tions of this book, and again in his "Apology" in 1585, without once implying that he had any professional connection whatever with it. After his return from Boulogne, Pare resumed his practice in Paris and also devoted himself to the study of anatomy. Malgaigne conjectures that he was pro- sector for Sylvius. If so it was a curious conjuncture for the most enlightened and advanced surgeon of his age to serv^e the most conservative and unenlightened anatomist, for Sylvius was Galenical to the core, an- nouncing that if the anatomical discoveries of Vesalius and the other anatomists of his time were true, the ana- tomical structure of man must have altered since the time of Galen. Be that as it may, in conjunction with his friend Thierry de Hery, another barber-surgeon. Pare dissected many bodies and in 1549 published as the result of his labors a little work on anatomy.^ There *Briefue collection de radministration anatomique: avec la maniere de conjoindre les os: Et d'extraire les enfans tant morts que viuans du ventre de la mere, lorsque nature de soy ne peult venir a son effet. 44 AMBROISE PARE is nothing very remarkable about the anatomical por- tion of this book, but that part which dealt with obstet- rics contained within it the first published reference to the use of podahc version. This little book may be re- garded as the germ of his much larger and more elab- orate treatise on obstetrics in his book on the genera- tion of man, which was published in 1573. Francois I died in 1547 and was succeeded by his son Henri II, who proved a most valuable friend to Pare. Henri II possessed many most attractive quali- ties. Of robust health, fond of outdoor life, a great horseman and a mighty hunter, he was likewise a man of keen intellect and judgment and during his reign by his wise choice of counsellors and by his firm, pru- dent management he did much to repair some of the evils into which France had fallen. His wife, Cather- ine de Medici, and he were married for ten years be- fore they had a child, then their hopes were more than realized for in thirteen years Catherine gave birth to ten children, three of whom lived to be kings of France.^ Henri and Catherine's menage was a curious one. She appears to have been devotedly attached to "Many curious stories have been told to account for the barrenness of Catherine's eariy married life, most of them attributing its source to im- potence on Henri's part. Some state it was due to his having a hypo- spadias which was cured by operation. His responsibility is negatived by the fact that before marrj'ing Catherine he had had an illegitimate daughter (Diane de France) by an Italian girl. It is generally conceded that the counsels of Fernel, the court physician, led to the happy result. He is said to have advised the royal pair to have connection during Catherine's menstrual periods. l1!firTipfP'lf5^p^^^^^^^ LIFE AND TIMES 45 him, and he in turn always treated her in public with apparent affection and esteem ; but the King's love was really bestowed on Diane de Poitiers, and she probably had more influence over him than any other person. She was nineteen years older than Henri, a widow with two children, who had been on intimate relations with his own father. Some have tried to prove that their relations were purely platonic, but it is hard to believe this in view of the loverlike gallantry with which Henri treated her. In 1552 Pare repubhshed his book on wounds made by arquebuses, dedicating this edition to King Henri II, at the suggestion of Monsieur de Rohan to whom the first had been dedicated. In the same year (1552) Pare made his ''Journey to Germany," once more ac- companying Monsieur de Rohan. During the trip he had occasion to display the genuine kindness of his heart in the performance of an act of charity which won him the love of the private soldiers, men whom the cruelty of the warfare of that time had little ^accustomed to acts of that nature. After one of the humble soldiers had been terribly wounded, his comrades dug a ditch in which it was proposed to bury him before they re- sumed their march in order to save him from the sav- agery of the peasants, whose just hatred of the soldiers for the devastation of their lands led them to perpetrate barbarous brutahties on such fighting men as fell into 46 AMBROISE PARE their hands. Therefore the soldiers, hke the old soldier whom Pare tells us cut the throats of three wounded comrades on his campaign in 1537, were wont to put one another out of misery rather than be captured alive. Pare persuaded them to take the wounded man along on one of the army wagons. He himself performed for him the "offices of physician, apothecary, surgeon and cook" and finally cured him of his wounds. To this narrative Pare in all naivete appends the note "Charite de I'Auteur." The soldiers appreciated his charity so greatly that at the first opportunity each man-at-arms gave him an ecu and each archer a demi- ecu. Returning from this campaign in Germany in 1552, at the siege of Danvilliers, Pare amputated an officer's leg by his new method, using the ligature instead of hot irons to check the hemorrhage. "I dressed him and God healed him. He returned home gaily with a wooden leg, saying that he had got off cheaply without being miserably burned' to staunch the bleeding, as you write in your book, mon petit maistre." Malgaigne notes that only a short time before, in the second edi- tion "* (1552) of his book on wounds. Pare had still ad- hered to the use of the cautery to stop hemorrhage after *» La Maniere de Traicter les playes faites tant par hacjuebutes que par fleches: et les accidentz d'icelles, comma fractures et caries des os, gangrene et mortification: avec pourtraictz des instrumentz necessaires pour leur curation, Et la methode de curer les combustions principalement faites par la pouldre k canon. Paris, 1552. LIFE AND TIMES 47 amputation. But he had discussed with Etienne de la Riviere and Fran9ois Rasse, two of the surgeons of Saint Come, the question as to whether the ligature, applicable to other forms of hemorrhage, could not be used just as well in amputation wounds. They all agreed that it was worth trying and here at the first opportunity which offered Pare tried it, with success. In his "Dix Livres de La Chirugie," 1564, Pare first published his method of ligating the vessels in ampu- tations, stating candidly that in doing so he entirely ignored the method of stopping bleeding by cauteriza- tion which he had recommended in his book, published in 1552. He advises his reader in 1564 to forego the use of the cautery altogether. His fame had reached the ears of Antoine de Bour- bon, JNIonsieur de Vendome, who was later King of Navarre, and he sent for Pare and asked him to go with him as surgeon on an expedition he was leading into Picardy. Pare sought to be excused, alleging that his wife was ill and required his presence in Paris. But Monsieur de Vendome insisted, stating that he had left his wife, who was of as good a house as Pare's, and that there were other doctors in Paris besides her husband to treat her. Pare yielded and went on the campaign. He won the confidence and affection of Monsieur de Ven- dome to such an extent that he brought Pare to the at- tention of King Henri II. The King was so impressed 48 AMBROISE PARE that he took Pare into his own service, appointing him one of his surgeons in ordinary. Pare's account of his experiences at the siege of Metz in 1552 is one of the most graphic of his relations. The Emperor Charles V laid siege to Metz in the late autumn of 1552. The Due de Guise, d'Enghien, Conde, and many other nobles were in the city and determined to hold out to all extremities. There was great mortality among the wounded in the town and Guise sent word to the King requesting him to send Ambroise Pare with a fresh supply of drugs for him as he feared those they had were poisoned. Pare states that he does not believe the drugs were poisoned but that the wounded died because of the severity of their wounds and the extreme cold of the weather. The King arranged to have Pare smuggled through the ene- mies' lines by an Italian captain who got 1500 ecus for convoying him. Pare arrived within the walls of Metz at midnight. He was taken to the bedside of the Due de Guise who greeted him warmly. The very next morning Pare set to work. After he had brought the greetings of the King to the various nobles and gentle- men who were so bravely defending the city and had distributed his load of drugs to the surgeons and apothecaries, he fell to dressing the wounded who kept sending for him from all quarters. He set one seigneur's leg, which had been broken by a cannon shot four LIFE AND TIMES 49 days before, and treated only by a man who used cer- tain spells and did not reduce the fracture. Another gentleman whom he treated had been unconscious four- teen days, after having been hit on the head by a stone cannon ball. The patient had vomited and bled from the nose, mouth and ears, and had convulsive tremors. He was trephined. Pare modestly concludes his history of the case, *'I dressed him with other surgeons, and God healed him; and to-day he is yet living, thank God." Read in his story the many picturesque de- tails of the siege, the desperate straits to which both besiegers and besieged were reduced, and the fierce fighting. Finally the plague began to ravage the Em- peror's camp and realizing the hopelessness of his ef- forts he gave up the siege and returned with his army on the day after Christmas. Pare took leave of the Due de Guise and returned to the King at Paris, by whom he was honorably received and given 200 ecus, besides the 100 ecus he had received on going forth. In 1553 Pare was captured by the enemy when the town of Hesdin fell into their hands. He had been sent to Hesdin by the King. The French made a des- perate defense but were finally obliged to capitulate. Pare, addressing mon petit maistre, says that if he had been there he would have lacked charcoal to heat his hot irons and would have been killed hke a calf (comma un veau) for his cruelty if he had attempted to use 50 AMBROISE PARE them. Also he would have lacked the jellies and dain- ties which he was wont to feed his patients. At the council of the officers Pare gave his voice for a sur- render. Before the enemy entered Pare disguised him- self by giving his velvet coat, satin doublet and cloak to a soldier in exchange for the latter's ragged doublet with a frayed leather collar, a bad hat and a short cloak. Pare then went to Monsieur de Martigues who had been under his care with a shot wound of the lungs and arranged that he should stay with him and dress him when they were both prisoners. This was a risky scheme of Pare's because although by disguising him- self he might escape paying the ransom which would be demanded for his release, he ran the chance of meet- ing the fate allotted to common prisoners of that time, namely being shot or cut down without mercy and with no regard to the terms of surrender, a fate which actu- ally befell most of those who surrendered at Hesdin. Monsieur de Martigues, however, being a prisoner of importance asked that Pare be allowed to accompany him to the camp of his enemies and the Spaniards granted his request. His captors sent some of their own surgeons and physicians to see Monsieur de Mar- tigues. Pare resolved to appear ignorant and not let them know they had captured the King's surgeon and yet he wished them to see that he had taken good care of the wounded man as otherwise they might cut his LIFE AND TIMES 51 throat. After Pare had told the visitors the nature of the wound and what he had done for it, they all agreed with him in his unfavorable prognosis but stated in their opinion he had been well dressed and cared for. At this conjuncture a Spanish impostor came forward and avowed that he could cure de Martigues, if he was given entire charge of him. The Duke of Savoy gave orders that no physician or surgeon should interfere with the Spaniard, and Pare was forbidden on pain of death to go near him. This rejoiced Pare because he feared that when de Martigues should die the Spaniards would blame him and kill him. The Spaniard's treat- ment consisted in spells, and in permitting the wounded man to eat and drink whatever he pleased, while the Spaniard dieted himself rigorously. The patient died and the Spaniard ran away. Pare was requested by the Emperor's surgeon to embalm the body which he did in the presence of the surgeon, and of many other phy- sicians and surgeons and a large number of gentlemen. Pare not only embalmed the body but delivered to those assembled a learned discourse on anatomy. The Em- peror's surgeon was so impressed that he tried to per- suade Pare to remain with him, offering to clothe him and give him a horse. But Pare declined, saying that he had no desire to serve foreigners. To this patriotic statement Pare naively appends the marginal note "Brave response." The surgeon told him he was a 52 AMBROISE PARE fool. But Pare had occasion to make the same reply again to the Duke of Savoy himself, when that Prince, having been told by the Emperor's physician of Pare's skill, sent to ask him to enter his service. Pare sent back his thanks but stated that he would never serve a stranger. The Duke of Savoy was very angry and said the surgeon deserved to be sent to the galleys. Subsequently Monsieur de Vaudeville asked the Duke of Savoy to send Pare to him to see if he could cure a leg ulcer from which he had suffered for six or seven years. Savoy sent him and de Vaudeville promised to set him free if he succeeded in curing him. This Pare did and thereby secured his freedom. Pare hastened to King Henri II. The King received him gladly, gave him 200 ecus and told him that when he had heard of his capture he had sent word to his wife that she need not be unhappy that he would pay his ransom. CHAPTER IV I" IN 1554, when he was forty-four years old, Pare was made a member of the College de Saint Come, and thereby be- 1 came a master surgeon, a surgeon of the long robe, instead of a barber-surgeon. The surgeons of Paris were anxious to number among themselves a^man of such prominence and weight at Court. Pare knew no Latin and his examination for admission was so conducted as to render it a farce. He was given his letter of reception to the mastership without being re- quired to pay the customary fees. Twenty-three years later, in 1577, Jean Riolan, professor of anatomy at Paris, wrote a pamphlet in which he ridiculed the man- ner in which Pare had been received into the College of Surgeons. However that may be, the surgeons cer- tainly showed much practical wisdom in thus serving him because it was probably due to Pare's influence that the Faculte de Medecine attempted no more in- terference with their affairs throughout the reign of Pare's firm friend and patron Henri II. Pare's elevation to membership in the College de Saint Come furnishes an interesting chapter in the his- 53 54 AMBROISE PARE tory of the controversy by which the Confrerie de Saint Come succeeded in elevating itself to the rank of a college, securing thereby the privileges accruing to its affiliation with the Universite de France on an equal basis with the Faculte de Medecine. The chief factor in bringing about this improvement in the condition of the French surgeons was one Etienne de la Riviere, a native of Paris, and a warm friend of Fare's, who was one of the witnesses on his part at his first marriage, and was also associated with him in many other af- fairs both professional and social. La Riviere began his professional career as a barber-surgeon. He worked as prosector for the anatomical demonstrations given by Charles Etienne, a physician belonging to the Faculte de Medecine. In 1539 Charles Etienne an- nounced his intention of publishing a book on anatomy based on these demonstrations for which Etienne de la Riviere had made the dissections. The latter claimed recognition of his share in the work and laid his claims before the Parliament of Paris. After an investigation by a commission composed of physi- cians and surgeons, the Parliament acknowledged, in 1541, the justice of the claim. The Confrerie de Saint Come was so glad of a victory won over its opponents of the Faculte de Medecine that it proceeded to make the barber-surgeon de la Riviere a member of its august self. Thus when the book was finally published in yCR IMPROBVS OMNIA VINCITT * Ambroise Pare, at the Age of FoRXY-nvE. (^Anatomie Uiwoerselle, 1561.) LIFE AND TIMES 57 1545, Etienne de la Riviere figures as its author, with the proud title of surgeon, instead of barber, appended to his name. La Riviere became surgeon to the King, and sworn surgeon to the Chatelet. Throughout his career he lost no opportunity to advance the affairs of the College de Saint Come, and it was largely at his instigation and by his influence that Pare was brought into its fellowship. Thus through its wisdom or policy the College de Saint Come drew from the despised bar- bers two members who not only did much to advance its own interests, but also its standing in the world as the exponent of French surgery. Pare passed several years in Paris, working hard at anatomy in preparation for a new edition of his book. In 1557 the French army was defeated by the Span- iards in the battle of St. Quentin. The Constable, Anne de JNIontmorency, was wounded and taken pris- oner. Henri II wished to send Pare to treat him but the Duke of Savoy remembered him from the days of Hesdin and refused to allow him access to the Spanish camp, saying that there were plenty of surgeons to look after the Constable, and that he knew Pare was privy to other things than surgery and therefore might con- vey information. Pare stayed at La Fere, whither the French had retreated, and there dressed many of the . wounded in the battle. In 1558 he was sent by the King to Dourlan 58 AMBROISE PARE (Doullens) which was being besieged by the Spaniards. Pare changed places with his man servant and disguised as a menial finally succeeded in entering the town. In 1559 Pare met with a great loss by the death of his master and steadfast friend Henri II, who was wounded June 29, 1559. The fatal lance blow was accidentally given during a tournament by Gabriel de Montgomery, Comte de Lorges, captain of the Scotch guard, who had been persuaded against his will to enter the lists with the King. Pare was one of the surgeons in attendance on the King and Vesalius was sent for from Brussels. The King lived eleven days. The sur- geons could not find the lance splinters which had pene- trated the King's brain although they secured the heads of four criminals that had been beheaded and experi- mented upon them with a lance in order to ascertain the probable course of the splinters. The lance struck the king above the right eye. Pare says, "the muscular skin of the forehead, over the bone, was torn across to the inner angle of the left eye, and there were many little fragments or splinters of the broken shaft lodged in the eye ; but no fracture of the bone. Yet because of such commotion or shaking of the brain, he died on the eleventh day after he was struck. And after his death, they found on the side opposite to the blow, towards the middle of the commissure of the occipital bone, a quan- tity of blood effused between the dura mater and the Gabriel de Lorqif.s. Comte de Montgomery, Arrayed FOR THE ToURXAMEXT Henri II Receiving His Fatal Wound in the Joust with Montgomery. LIFE AND TIMES 61 pia mater : and alterations in the substance of the brain, which was of a brownish or yellowish colour for about the extent of one's thumb: at which place was found a beginning of corruption: which were causes enough of the death of my lord, and not only the harm done to his eye." Henri's successor, Francois II, retained Pare in his position of chimrgien ordinaire du Roi. This prince reigned but eighteen months. He was the husband of Mary Queen of the Scots; had his life been preserved her fate would probably have been very different. There is a vague tradition that the young Queen was a friend of Fare's and frequently conversed with him. Balzac in his "Catherine de Medici" gives a vivid though entirely imaginative picture of the deathbed of Fran9ois II, in which he makes it appear that Ambroise Fare wished to trephine the King and thought thereby he could save his life. According to the tale Catherine de Medici backed up by three court physicians refused to allow him to perform the operation, as she wished the young King, her own son, to die. Knowing that he was completely under the influence of the Guises the Queen hoped to regain her power by acting as regent for her other son, Charles, who would succeed to the throne. Francois II died on the fifth of December, 1560, at Orleans. Fare was brought into unenviable promi- 62 AMBROISE PARE nence by his death. Malgaigne quotes the following re- lation from an anonj^mous life of Admiral Coligny, published in 1686, apparently based on family records. It will be recalled that the Guises were at this time all powerful in France. The Queen was their niece. They had arrested Conde, the leader of the Huguenots, and were seeking his death by legal forms. When it was least thought of, the king suddenly felt a great pain in his head, which obliged him to put himself to bed. One would have thought that the trial of the Prince de Conde would have been deferred, but the Guises, seeing how things would change if they lost their hold of the Prince, hastened the judgment against him so that he was condemned to lose his head. When the Admiral (Coligny) heard of this order, he sent for Ambroise Pare, surgeon of the king, under the pretext that he was sick, and as he was one of his friends, and he knew that he professed secretly the same religion, and demanded of him in confidence what he thought of the illness of the king. Pare told him that he thought he was in great peril, but that he had not dared to say so because he feared making harm at court. On which the Admiral told him he had done very wrong, because he would have prevented the judgment of the Prince de Conde, that he should go and publish this news, otherwise their religion would lose the most firm support that it had. Pare promised to repair his fault, which he did at once. All the court was surprised, which had believed to the contrary that the illness was nothing, especially because it had begun to suppurate by the ear, that which made them think that na- ture discharged itself there. The Chancellor, hearing the news, Portrait of Francois ii LIFE AND TIMES 63 sent for Pare to know if it was true, and he having confirmed it, the other became ill from fear of signing the order. This feigned illness lasted until one saw that the condition of the king was desperate. Then he talked in a different manner to the Queen Mother (Catherine de Medici), saying that the Guises commenced to hold them in contempt, and urged her to unite with the princes of the blood. She was disposed to be- lieve this. Pare, having told this to the Admiral, whom he continued to see whenever he did not have to be with the king, the Admiral charged him with the negotiation. Meanwhile the king died a few days later and the intrigues during his illness made everyone believe his days had been hastened. They suspected Pare of having put poison in his ear when he dressed him, by order of the Queen Mother, who s&w no other means of assuring her authority. As Malgaigne says this suspicion does not warrant attention. It is given the he by many circumstances besides the character of Pare. Charles IX, Francois* successor, again appointed him chirurgien ordinaire du Boi, and took him into intimate confidence and esteem One of the stories concerning the two which is often repeated is that of the bezoar stone, and as it is gener- ally told as a reflection on Pare, I shall give his own version of it, as narrated in his book on poisons. I must confess that I can see no reason why any blame should be attached to him in the matter. Experimen- tation on criminals was a common practice even many years later. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 64 AMBROISE PARE introduced inoculation for smallpox into England, the method was tried first on certain criminals who were to be given their liberty if they survived. This was in 1721, over one hundred and fifty years after Fare's exploit. Charles IX had been presented with a bezoar stone. These so-called stones are concretions which are found in the intestinal tracts of certain animals. In- troduced into medicine by the Arabs, they were held in great esteem as universal antidotes. Charles IX was very proud of his bezoar stone. He spoke of it to Pare who told him that there was no such thing as a universal antidote. Pare suggested that its efficacy could easily be tested on some rascal who had been sentenced to be hung. The king sent for his pro- vost and asked him if he had any prisoner who merited hanging. "He told him that he had in his prison a cook, who had stolen two silver plates from his master, and that the next day was to be hung and strangled. The King told him he wished to experiment with a stone which they said was good against all poisons, and that he should ask the said cook after his condemnation if he would take a certain poison, and that they would at once give him an antidote; to which the said cook very willingly agreed, saying that he liked much better to die of said poison in the prison, than to be strangled in view of the people. And then an apothecary gave him a certain poison in a drink and at once the bezoar LIFE AND TIMES 65 stone. Having these two good drugs in his stomach he took to vomiting and purging, saying that he was burn- ing inside, and calling for water to drink, which was not denied him. An hour later, having been told that the cook had taken this good drug, I prayed Monsieur de la Trousse (the provost) to let me to see him, which he accorded, accompanied by three of his archers, and found the poor cook on all fours, going like an animal, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his eyes and face flaming, retching and in a cold sweat, bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth. I made him drink about one half sextier of oil, thinking to aid him and save his life, but it was no use because it was too late, and he died miserably, crying it would have been better to have died on the gibbet. He lived about seven hours." Pare performed an autopsy which showed that he had died of a gastroenteritis from corrosive sublimate poisoning. In 1561 Pare published two important books, his book on wounds of the head and his "Anatomic Uni- verselle." ^ Sir William Osler^ has recently described a copy *"La Methode Curative des playes, et fractures de la teste humaine, avec les portraits des instruments necessaires pour la curation d'icelles," and "Anatomie Universelle du corps humain, composee par A. Pare, chirurgien ordinaire du ray et jure a Paris: revue et augmentee par le dit auteur, avec I. Rostaing du Bignose Provencal aussi chirurgien jure a Paris." The latter owes much to plates from the French edition of Vesalius, which had appeared in 1559, but, as Malgaigne states, Pare's book was long esteemed as a textbook of anatomy for surgeons. ''Ann. Med. Hut., i, 424. 66 AMBROISE PARE of the "Anatomic Universelle" which he had procured in Paris. As he states the book is so rare that JMalgaigne knew of but two copies, one in the Bibhotheque Sainte Genevieve, the other in private hands in Bar-le-Duc. Neither the Library of the Surgeon General in Wash- ington, the British Museum, nor the Bodleian Library has a copy of this book. It is accompanied by a copper plate engravmg of a portrait of the author, at the age of forty-five, which Sir William thought was by far the most pleasing which has descended to us. In the same year, 1561, Pare had his leg broken by the kick of a horse, which confined him to bed for sev- eral months. He describes his accident and the treat- ment of it at length in his book on fractures. He was making a professional call on horseback, as was his custom, in company with Richard Hubert and Antoine Portail, to a small village near Paris. In attempting to make the horse get on the boat to cross the ferry, Pare switched him, whereupon the horse kicked him upon his leg, causing a compound fracture of both bones. Portail and Hubert set his leg and applied the first dressing. He prayed them to forget their old friendship and treat his leg just as they would that of an ordinary patient. Hubert and Portail were barber- surgeons. When they had brought him back to Paris he was cared for "de mes compagnons Chirurgiens de Paris," especially Etienne de la Riviere. It is sad to VNIVERSELLE DV Corps huinain,compof€e pat A- Par^ Chirurgien ordinaire du Ro.y,& lure a Paris : reueue &c augraentee par ledit au- theur auec I. Roftaingdu Bignofc Pro- uen^al aufsi Chirurgien lure a Paris. &ftv. Ve^fmpr'imcne de lehan U linyer, Impnmeur dul^f^ ^athematlqUef i demeurcnt en UrueS. la^ufs, a fenfe'tgne du Vuy Fot'ier,f)res Us Mathimns, XT 6l» LIFE AND TIMES 69 find that subsequently he and Portail had some kind of a quarrel, and in the later editions of his works Pare does not mention his name as having helped him.® Both Hubert and Portail later advanced from the rank of barber-surgeons to master surgeons. By 1562 Pare was again fit to undertake his jour- neys and he accompanied Charles IX to the sieges of Bourges and Rouen. At the latter the mortality among the wounded from infection was very great. Pare attributed it to the malignity of the air. Among those who died was the King of Navarre, Pare's good friend. He was one of the surgeons who dressed the King's wound, and the latter bequeathed him six thousand livres. The surgeons had been unable to ex- tract the ball from the wound which was in the shoulder. Pare performed an autopsy, and in the presence of many witnesses removed the ball from the middle of the bone, where he had said it was lodged. This siege of Rouen marks another epoch in Pare's surgical experiences for from this time he found the use of the oil made from puppies as a dressing for gun- shot wounds did not give as good results as the dressing of the wounds with Egyptiacum, a preparation made with honey and alum, much commended by John of Vigo. Later he used a dressing of turpentine and •He was related to Pard through his marriage with Jacqueline de Prime. 70 AMBROISE PARE brandy. The campaign of 1562 was the first in which we find Pare accompanying the Royal army in its cam- paign against the Huguenots. Conde and Fare's friend CoHgny were the active leaders of the party upon which Charles IX was waging war. After the victory won by the Royalists at Dreux, in December 1562, Pare dressed many of the wounded. Conde was taken pris- oner by the Royalists, but the Huguenots captured Anne de Montmorenci. The Peace of Amboise was signed shortly after the murder of Guise in 1563. The year 1564 witnessed the publication of Pare's surgery.® It will be noticed that the author now bears the title, premier chirurgien du Roi. He took the oath as first surgeon to the King at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on January 1, 1562, succeeding the deceased Nicole Lavernot. In 1564, Pare started with Charles IX, the Queen Regent (Catherine de Medici) and the entire court on a royal progress through France. This journey lasted nearly two years and was undertaken as a political cam- paign against the Huguenots. In its course Pare visited most of the large cities and towns of France and picked up a great amount of curious, interesting in- formation. While at Montpellier he was bitten by a viper. He was watching an apothecary who was mak- 'Dix livres de la Chirurgerie avec le magasin des instruments necessaires a icelle, par Ambroise Pare, premier chirurgien du roy et jure a Paris. The Constable Anne ue Montmorenci {From a paintiiic/ in the Louvre hi) Lioiiard Simoiixhi.) Cutting Up a Whale. (^Pare, Edition 1585.) LIFE AND TIMES 73 ing some theriaca, the universal antidote for poisons. This mixture contained amongst its many ingredients vipers, and Pare was looking at those which the apothe- cary was going to use when one of them bit him be- neath the nail of his first finger. Pare tied the finger around tightly above the wound, then moistened some old theriac ointment in brandy, and soaking some cot- ton in it applied it over the wound. He experienced no ill-effects. He had an opportunity to study the plague, from which he himself once suffered an attack, and of which his observations and experiences enabled him to write an excellent treatise. At Biarritz he learned how the inhabitants caught whales, and procured a whale's vertebrfe which he treasured as a curiosity. When the Court returned to Paris the city was in the throes of an epidemic of smallpox. Pare, although a surgeon, treated many cases. Many of the nobility suffered from the disease, among them Charles IX and his sister Marguerite de Valois, who married Henri of Navarre. Pare treated Charles IX for a contracture of the arm which followed a venesection said to have been made by Antoine Portail during the king's attack of smallpox. Portail had wounded a nerve. "The king remained three months and more without power to flex or extend his arm; nevertheless (graces a Dieu) he re- covered without the slightest impairment of motion."*® " MaJgaigne's edition of Par6, ii, 115. T CHAPTER V HE religious wars broke out again and once more Pare was busy with the armies. After the battle of St. Denis, in 1567, he dressed many of the wounded, most of whom were removed to Paris. The Constable, Anne de Montmorenci, had received a fatal pistol shot wound in the spine. Pare was sent by the king to attend him at the request of Madame de Mont- morenci. The surgeon was at Plessis le Tours with the Court in 1569, when news was brought that the Royal army had won the battle of Moncontour. Many of the wounded were brought to Tours where Pare and other surgeons dressed them. The Count of Mansfield, who had fought valiantly for the King, received a bad shot wound of the elbow. He was taken to Borgueil, from whence he sent to the King requesting him to send one of his surgeons to his aid. The Mareschal de Montmorenci told the King and the Queen INIother that as Mansfield had done so much to secure the victory, they should send Pare to dress him, but the King flatly refused, saying that he did not wish Pare to go from him. Catherine de Medici, however, explained to Charles that Pare 74 LIFE AND TIMES 75 would but go and come right back, and that as the Count of Mansfield was a foreigner who had come to their aid, having been sent with the Spanish troops by command of the King of Spain, they should do their best for him. Charles finally consented and Pare was sent to the Count with a letter from the King and Queen Mother. At Borgueil Pare found many other wounded noblemen whom he dressed. The Count Rhin- grave died of a wound similar to that which killed the King of Navarre at Rouen; Monsieur de Bassompierre was wounded in the same manner as the Count of Mans- field, "whom I dressed and God healed him" (que je pensay et Dieu la guarist) . "God blessed so well my work, that in three weeks I sent him to Paris, where it was yet necessary to make some incisions in the arm of the Count of Mansfield, to extract the bone which was greatly spHntered, broken and carious. He recovered by the Grace of God and made me a worthy present, of a sort that I was well contented with him and he with me. Mansfield wrote to Monsieur le Due d'Arschot tell- ing him how well Pare had treated him, with the result that the Due d'Arschot sent one of his gentlemen to the King to beseech him to send Pare to see what he could do for his brother, the Marquis d'Auret, who was lying at the Chateau d'Auret, near Mons, suffering from a gunshot wound of the leg, received seven months pre- 76 AMBROISE PARE viously and still unhealed. The King consented to send Pare who thereupon set out for d'Auret. He gives a lengthy description of his management of the case, which occupied him two months, during which he stayed at the chateau with the Marquis. The result was fortunate for both Marquis and surgeon. The former recovered entirely. Pare was feted and made much of. At part- ing Madame la Duchesse d'Arschot drew a diamond ring, worth more than fifty ecus, from her finger, and presented it to him, and the Marquis gave him a present of great value. While in attendance on the Marquis, Pare made a little tour of Flanders going to Antwerp, Mahnes, and Brussels, in all of which places the prin- cipal citizens showed him much honor. In 1567 Pare made an attempt to bring all those who should undertake to practice surgery in France un- der the jurisdiction of the premier surgeon to the king, an office then held by himself. Heretofore the premier barber-surgeon to the King had been the ostensible head of not only the barber-surgeons but also the surgeons. Le Paulmier says that the Faculte de Medecine had connived at this arrangement as an aid in maintaining its own superiority over the surgeons. Pare suppH- cated the King (Charles IX) to this effect, and he in turn referred the matter to the Faculte de Medecine, ordering them to consult with some of the surgeons and give him their advice. Fare's request was that he as LIFE AND TIMES 77 premier surgeon should be placed over all those prac- ticing surgery, and that no one should be allowed to practice that profession in France without his authori- zation or the authorization of certain persons to be . named by him, with whom should be associated two physicians. This last promise was obviously intended as a sop to the Faculte de Medecine. Pare had already secured the assent of the physicians to the King, but Camusat, the premier barber-surgeon and the sworn sur- geons were quick to take alarm. Such a strong oppo- sition was developed that Fare's project was defeated. As Le Paulmier states it remained for Felix Fagon, premier surgeon to Louis XIV, to finally free the sur- geons from their subjection to the premier barber-sur- geon of the King. After 1559 Pare no longer followed the armies but lived and labored in Paris, the city for which he ex- presses his love in so many places throughout his works. He seems to have passed all his life in Paris in the house or houses which he owned near the Pont Saint Michel. Here he gathered around him various relatives. Most of th