In Pare's time the armies of Europe were not regularly equipped
with a medical service. The great nobles were accompanied by
their private physicians; the common soldiers doctored
themselves, or used the services of barber-surgeons and quacks
who accompanied the army as adventurers. "When Pare joined the
army" says Paget, "he went simply as a follower of Colonel
Montejan, having neither rank, recognition, nor regular payment.
His fees make up in romance for their irregularity: a cask of
wine, fifty double ducats and a horse, a diamond, a collection of
crowns and half-crowns from the ranks, other honorable presents
and of great value'; from the King himself, three hundred crowns,
and a promise he would never let him be in want; another diamond,
this time from the finger of a duchess: and a soldier once
offered a bag of gold to him."
When Pare was a man of seventy, the Dean of the Faculty of
Medicine in Paris made an attack on him on account of his use of
the ligature instead of cauterizing after amputation. In answer,
Pare appealed to his successful experience, and narrated the
"Journeys in Diverse Places" here printed. This entertaining
volume gives a vivid picture, not merely of the condition of
surgery in the sixteenth century, but of the military life of the
time; and reveals incidentally a personality of remarkable vigor
and charm. Pare's own achievements are recorded with modest
satisfaction: "I dressed him, and God healed him," is the
refrain. Pare died in Paris in December, 1590.
JOURNEYS IN DIVERSE PLACES
[Footnote: The present translation is taken from Mr. Stephen
Paget's "Ambroise Pare and His Times" by arrangement with Messrs.
G. P. Putnam's Sons.]
1537-1569
THE JOURNEY TO TURIN. 1537
I will here shew my readers the towns and places where I found a
way to learn the art of surgery: for the better instruction of
the young surgeon.
And first, in the year 1536, the great King Francis sent a large
army to Turin, to recover the towns and castles that had been
taken by the Marquis du Guast, Lieutenant-General of the Emperor.
M. the Constable, then Grand Master, was Lieutenant-General of
the army, and M. de Montejan was Colonel-General of the infantry,
whose surgeon I was at this time. A great part of the army being
come to the Pass of Suze, we found the enemy occupying it; and
they had made forts and trenches, so that we had to fight to
dislodge them and drive them out. And there were many killed and
wounded on both sides,--but the enemy were forced to give way and
retreat into the castle, which was captured, part of it, by
Captain Le Rat, who was posted on a little hill with some of his
soldiers, whence they fired straight on the enemy. He received an
arquebus-shot in his right ankle, and fell to the ground at once,
and then said, "Now they have got the Rat." I dressed him, and
God healed him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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