Rocky Road: Ambroise Pare

Ambroise Paré

From On Monsters and Marvels by Ambroise Paré

To say that Ambroise Paré lived in times unlike our own is a bit of an understatement. Born in France around 1510, he served as a surgeon's apprentice as a youth, probably rising around 4 a.m. every day to shave customers (surgeons and barbers worked together in those days), attend university lectures in Latin (a language he didn't understand) and squeeze his studies in between any task his master gave him. Despite the challenges, he rose to the rank of barber surgeon, then full-fledged surgeon, and eventually a doctor for Charles IX, Henri III and Catherine de Medici. Yet the man considered the father of modern surgery did not enjoy the same esteem that surgeons do today. Because they were less educated and made a living using their hands, surgeons seemed somehow inferior to physicians, who practiced "pure" medicine. When he published, Paré was often criticized by physicians for daring to write about topics beyond his area of specialization.

Paré spent his life serving in the army in wartime, and caring for the sick poor of Paris during peaceful periods. After he practiced surgery long enough to prove himself, he also proved to be a shrewd businessman, acquiring several houses and providing well for his family. He had three children by his first wife and, after she died, six by his second wife. Several of the children died young, however, and he didn't leave a single son who survived into adulthood to carry on his work. Though he was unquestionably a man of strong faith as evidenced in his writings, his exact faith — Catholic, Protestant, or convert — is unknown today.

Paré's days differed from our own not only in the lesser status of surgeons, but also in how people thought. Paré's time was a curious mix of fascination with the natural world and often childlike faith in rumor. So while Paré made many astute observations about his patients and the world in which they lived, he also passed along many unsubstantiated accounts of sea devils, marine sows, and "monstrous" animals with human faces in his book Des Monstres, first published in 1573. (Most if not all the illustrations in Paré's work were borrowed from other sources, including the works of Conrad Gesner.)

Despite the misinformation he occasionally passed along, Paré earned a reputation as an independent thinker, briefly tutoring the polymath Paracelsus, and once stating he would rather be alone and correct than go along with the crowd in a mistaken belief. He conducted experiments that disproved the alleged healing qualities of "unicorn horns," discovered that using boiling oil to treat gunshot wounds had a negative effect (sounds pretty obvious today, but it wasn't then) and recommended ligation instead of cauterization in amputations. He may have been the first person who learned to tie an artery. And Paré knew how to respond to adversaries. When an anonymous critic tried to squash Paré's opinions, he wrote, "I say nothing of his apparent animosity, which I suppose must be due rather to his zeal for the truth than to any opinion that he can hold of me."

For more information:
On Monsters and Marvels by Ambroise Paré
The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard
The Pope's Elephant by Silvio Bedini
Wonders and the Order of Nature by Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park
Mendeleyev's Dream by Paul Strathern
The Devil's Doctor by Phillip Ball
The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine by Horst Bredekamp