Apr 24, 2012

Stamps of France: Ambroise Paré

AMBROISE PARÉ


(c. 1510 – 20 December 1590)


Ambroise Paré was born in Bourg-Hensent, near Laval, in France and died in Paris, France. He was the great official royal surgeon for kings Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III and is considered as one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology. He was a leader in surgical techniques and battlefield medicine, especially the treatment of wounds. He was also an anatomist and invented several surgical instruments.

"Je le pansai, Dieu le guérit" (I treat and God heal) is a quote that summarizes his work philosophy. At this time, little could be done for battlefield wounds and injured soldiers were often put out of their misery by comrades if the wound was too severe to be treated.

At the time it was believed that the injuries caused by firearms were poisonous and should be treated with boiling oil. Paré replaced it with a mixture of egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine. He found that the new mixture caused a more rapid healing than the boiling oil.

Paré was the author of the artificial limbs and eyes, as well as the precursor of the dental implant. He invented new surgical instruments, the operation of the cleft lip and was the first to realize that syphilis caused aortic aneurysm. He was pioneered homeostasis amputated limbs, with the use of clamps and threads for connecting the vessel, as it practice today.

Paré was considered "Huguenote" (French Calvinist Protestants), and escaped death on the night of S. Bartholomew, the August 23, 1572, because the very King Charles IX, who ordered the killing, hidden him in the palace.

In 1545, Paré published a book on his findings: "La Méthode de traicter lês playes faites par les arquebuses et autres bastons à feu" (Method for treating wounds made by arquebuses and other firearms). In 1553, he published a second edition with the same name. In 1564 he published " Dix livres de la Chirurgie" (Ten Books of Surgery) in 1575, at 65 years of age, gathered all his works under the title "Les Oeuvres de M. Ambroise Paré, avec les figures et les portraits de l'Anatomie que des instruments de chirurgie et de plusieurs monstres" (The Works of M. Ambroise Paré, with pictures and images of anatomy, surgical instruments and various monsters).


0 comentários:

Post a Comment