At the doctor's appointment, no one is afraid of being doused with boiling oil. Such fearlessness is possible because this person has put an end to harmful medical practices.
The great Russian surgeon Nikolai Pirogov is much more famous than Ambroise Paré. The name of this French Renaissance physician is known only to those interested in the history of medicine. However, without Paré's efforts, surgery would remain like a torture chamber, and there would be much less cases of recovery than we see today. This brilliant physician can be safely called the predecessor of Pirogov. Even their biographies and strict adherence to the principle of humanism have much in common.
early years
Ambroise Paré was born at the beginning of the 16th century. in the north of France, in the town of Bourg-Ersan. His father was engaged in the manufacture of chests and was very poor, he wished his son a better fate. When the local barber Violo noticed the boy's interest in his craft and offered to send him to study, the head of the family gladly agreed.
It should be noted that in those days, the duties of doctors included only diagnosis and therapy. Surgical operations were performed by barbers. It was this side of the craft that interested young Ambroise. Already at the age of 17, his successes were so obvious that provincial healers decided to send him to study in Paris. In 1529, the guy arrived in the capital and got a job at the Hotel-Dieu Paris hospital, for the staff of which the best doctors of that time lectured.
Helping the wounded on the battlefield
In 1537, Ambroise Paré left Paris to be a barber in the army of King Francis I. The French army waged a war against the Italian principalities, and surgeons always had a lot of work. The methods of treatment were barbaric - bleeding was stopped by covering the exposed flesh with resin, and boiling oil was used as an antiseptic for gunshot wounds. Few of the fighters experienced such torture. A young doctor witnessed a terrible scene: a crippled soldier asked his comrade to end his torment, and he shot a fellow soldier, convinced that he had done a good deed.
The impudent barber decided to put an edge on monstrous procedures. After one of the battles, he applied the classical method of treating wounds to only half of the wounded, the rest received another treatment - washing the damaged area and dressing with an ointment from herbal ingredients. The effectiveness of the innovative treatment was proven the next morning - those who were not doused with boiling oil began to recover. I also did not recommend stopping the blood with resin. He turned to the already existing knowledge about anatomy and proposed to ligate (ligate with a thread) large vessels during amputations and invented instruments for this operation.
Scientific activity
Returning to Paris in 1539, Ambroise Paré received the title of Master Barber-Surgeon and continued his work. The veterans of the Italian campaign did not forget about their savior, as he did about them. For those who have lost their limbs on the battlefield, the doctor has developed comfortable and practical prostheses. In 1545, based on his practice, Paré wrote a book on surgery and wound healing. The scientific community met this work with hostility.
The pundit of that time was obliged to know Latin, and the commoner Ambroise Paré knew only French. Moreover, he was a Huguenot. To completely ruin the reputation of a successful competitor, some doctors stooped to spreading rumors that the barber Paré was a warlock and a servant of the devil.
Court doctor
No amount of gossip could change the fact that Par was trusted. The career of a medic made a rapid leap forward when he was invited to the court by King Henry II himself. In addition to correcting the consequences of participation in battles of noble gentlemen, Ambroise Paré took delivery of their wives. The doctor turned to the obstetric techniques forgotten by official medicine and saved more than one family from the loss of a mother or baby.
Having received a good education, Ambroise Paré often turned to the works of the ancient classics. He perfected their techniques. The surgeon applied innovative healing techniques not only to his patients, but also experimented on himself. In his scientific works, Paré rarely turned to folk art about the influence of the supernatural on human health, preferring to consider cases where the situation can be corrected by very real actions.
Religious Wars
In 1572, during the St. Bartholomew's Night, the wounded leader of the Huguenots, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, was brought to the surgeon. As soon as the doctor finished his work, the king's envoy came to his house. He demanded that Paré immediately report to the Louvre. There, the doctor was locked in one of the rooms, and when angry fanatics asked why the sovereign was hiding the Huguenot, the king replied that one life of this gentile could save thousands of lives of honest Catholics. Admiral Coligny was killed several hours after the operation.
In 1575, the Duke of Guise, the main persecutor of the Huguenots, was wounded in a battle with the Gentile Germans. An arrowhead protruded from his head and the courtiers were in a hurry to deliver the gentleman to Paris. He did not trust Doctor Paré, but the physician himself stopped the duke's crew and performed an operation to remove a foreign body from the wound. Guise survived and bore the scar and the nickname Marked in memory of the incident.
Heritage
History has not preserved information about the personal life of the great doctor. It is only known that he lived a long life and made a great many discoveries, which he described in books that survived more than one edition over several centuries. He did not hide his inventions, he spoke about them in a language accessible to a wide audience, therefore all doctors in the world can be considered his heirs.
Ambroise Paré's contribution to the theory and practice of medicine is now being evaluated as a reform of surgery. Through experiment and observation, he was able to reject many misconceptions and develop a number of techniques and tools that are used by modern doctors to save lives.
