Ambroise Paré

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Ambroise Paré (1510 – December 20, 1590) was a French surgeon, the official royal surgeon for kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, is considered by some one of the fathers of surgery. He was a leader in surgical techniques, especially the treatment of wounds.

Paré was born in Bourg-Hersent, France.

Paré was a major figure of surgery in the 16th century. After his apprenticeship at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris between 1533 and 1536, he soon became a military surgeon during the campaigns in Italy. In this occasion, he discovered a remedy against the pain of the wounded by firearms. Much of Paré's experience with wounds was acquired on the battlefield.

In 1545 and 1553, he published the first and second editions of his treatise on the treatment of wounds by firearms and arrows, considered a milestone of surgical art. In 1561, Paré published his universal anatomy of the human body. Paré published other scholarly treatises on the treatment of wounds and illnesses.

Ambroise Paré substituted egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine for boiling oil after a twist of fate where all the boiling oil ran out. He then used the ancient turpentine remedy and discovered that it was far more efficient at healing the wounds than the boiling oil. He also introduced the ligature of arteries instead of cauterization during amputation. Although ligatures often spread infection it cannot be denied that this was an important breakthrough in surgical practice.

He was also an important figure in the progress of obstetrics in the middle of the 16th century. He revived the operation of podalic version and showed how, by means of it, surgeons could often rescue an infant even in cases of head presentation, instead of breaking it up and extracting it piecemeal. He was ably seconded by his pupil Guillemeau, who translated his work into Latin, and at a later period himself wrote a treatise on midwifery, an English translation of which was published in 1612 with the title Child Birth; or, The Happy Deliverie of Women.

In 1552, Paré was accepted into royal service of the Valois Dynasty under Henry II. The good surgeon stayed in this service to the end of his life in 1590. On August 24, 1572, Paré was called to the royal palace where the king locked him in a clothes closet with his own hand. That was St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre when Catholics began their assault on the Huguenots. Paré was Huguenot and Charles IX saved him.

A collection of his works was published at Paris in 1575, and they were afterwards frequently reprinted. Several editions have appeared in German and Dutch, and among the English translations was that of Thomas Johnson (1665).

[edit] Quotations

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