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Knife, Fire and Boiling Oil: The Early History of Surgery
Including graphic accounts of wartime surgery, wound treatments, blood transfusions, and body snatching, this history will inform and intrigue medical professionals and general readers alike
Recounting the story of the early history of surgery, when surgeons were equipped with just knives, fire, and boiling oil, this book celebrates the dedication and ingenuity of surgery's early pioneers and documents some of their remarkable surgical procedures. The two events which mark the beginning of "modern" surgery are the introduction of anesthesia and antiseptic, both in the second half of the 19th century, however, present day knowledge and techniques have resulted from the cumulative observations and experiments of centuries. This history includes ancient Babylonian and Assyrian surgical laws, Egyptian textbooks from 3000 BC, the second-century Chinese surgeon Hua To, Hindu physicians who created artificial noses hundreds of years before plastic surgery, and the brilliant William Cheselden, who could remove a stone from a bladder in less than a minute.
Recounting the story of the early history of surgery, when surgeons were equipped with just knives, fire, and boiling oil, this book celebrates the dedication and ingenuity of surgery's early pioneers and documents some of their remarkable surgical procedures. The two events which mark the beginning of "modern" surgery are the introduction of anesthesia and antiseptic, both in the second half of the 19th century, however, present day knowledge and techniques have resulted from the cumulative observations and experiments of centuries. This history includes ancient Babylonian and Assyrian surgical laws, Egyptian textbooks from 3000 BC, the second-century Chinese surgeon Hua To, Hindu physicians who created artificial noses hundreds of years before plastic surgery, and the brilliant William Cheselden, who could remove a stone from a bladder in less than a minute.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 25, 2024
“At the battle of Crècy (26 August, 1346) the English soldiers carried boxes containing spiders’ webs as first-aid equipment. This practice may have some basis in that the presence of a fine filament, such as a spider’s web, would facilitate coagulation of the blood; but it would also seem to carry some danger from the point of view of infection.”
“A wise physician skilled our woulds to heal
Is more than armies to the public weal.”
“Gunshot wounds were caused by large missiles of low velocity, causing ragged wounds that carried pieces of clothing into the tissues. These wounds were severe and very liable to become septic. Therefore, the universal belief among surgeons of the Middle Ages was that gunpowder itself was venomous. To neutralize its effect the general practice was to cauterize the wound by injecting boiling oil.”
“Chastelet had a stroke of a sword upon the throat in the meadow, which cut asunder the jugular externe. As soon as he was hurt, he put a handkerchief on the wound and came down knocking at my house. When he took away the handkerchief the blood splashed into my mouth.”
“In pre-anaesthetic days operations were rushed through at lightning speed and under conditions of appalling difficulty. The most hardened surgeons had to steel themselves to perform operations which they knew would cause agony to their patients and nerve-racking distress to themselves. Even William Cheselden, who could remove a stone from the bladder in under a minute, said that he had bought his reputation dearly, "for no one ever endured more anxiety and sickness before an operation".”
“A wise physician skilled our woulds to heal
Is more than armies to the public weal.”
“Gunshot wounds were caused by large missiles of low velocity, causing ragged wounds that carried pieces of clothing into the tissues. These wounds were severe and very liable to become septic. Therefore, the universal belief among surgeons of the Middle Ages was that gunpowder itself was venomous. To neutralize its effect the general practice was to cauterize the wound by injecting boiling oil.”
“Chastelet had a stroke of a sword upon the throat in the meadow, which cut asunder the jugular externe. As soon as he was hurt, he put a handkerchief on the wound and came down knocking at my house. When he took away the handkerchief the blood splashed into my mouth.”
“In pre-anaesthetic days operations were rushed through at lightning speed and under conditions of appalling difficulty. The most hardened surgeons had to steel themselves to perform operations which they knew would cause agony to their patients and nerve-racking distress to themselves. Even William Cheselden, who could remove a stone from the bladder in under a minute, said that he had bought his reputation dearly, "for no one ever endured more anxiety and sickness before an operation".”
August 24, 2017
Not worth it.
The first few chapters are dry and technical, but informative. The book loses me in chapter 4 (on the Middle Ages) when the simmering anti-religious tone erupts, in a fun round of "anti-Catholic ignorance masquerading as intellectualism". Bishop starts the chapter with the usual nonsense claims that the Catholic Church Ruined Everything. We get the usual litanty: the Church actively discouraged scientific progress, the Church opposed dissection (debunked ages ago), "investigation into natural causes of diseases was discouraged," and "blind adherence to authority as fostered by the early Christian Church tended to inhibit freedom of thought and observation." Gag me.
Meanwhile, we've got Pope Innocent III establishing hospitals throughout Europe, and countless Christian clerics, monks, priests, and scholars studying medicine, practicing surgery and dissection, eradicating diseases such as leprosy, and inventing entire fields of study. (Thank a Jesuit for seismology!) The brightest medical and surgical minds of Europe were invited to the Vatican to be papal physicians, astronomers, and researchers.
There's plenty of useful information in the book, but anyone who can't be bothered to see the glaringly obvious contributions of Catholicism to surgery (and science in general) is, at this point, willfully ignorant and embarrassing to read.
The first few chapters are dry and technical, but informative. The book loses me in chapter 4 (on the Middle Ages) when the simmering anti-religious tone erupts, in a fun round of "anti-Catholic ignorance masquerading as intellectualism". Bishop starts the chapter with the usual nonsense claims that the Catholic Church Ruined Everything. We get the usual litanty: the Church actively discouraged scientific progress, the Church opposed dissection (debunked ages ago), "investigation into natural causes of diseases was discouraged," and "blind adherence to authority as fostered by the early Christian Church tended to inhibit freedom of thought and observation." Gag me.
Meanwhile, we've got Pope Innocent III establishing hospitals throughout Europe, and countless Christian clerics, monks, priests, and scholars studying medicine, practicing surgery and dissection, eradicating diseases such as leprosy, and inventing entire fields of study. (Thank a Jesuit for seismology!) The brightest medical and surgical minds of Europe were invited to the Vatican to be papal physicians, astronomers, and researchers.
There's plenty of useful information in the book, but anyone who can't be bothered to see the glaringly obvious contributions of Catholicism to surgery (and science in general) is, at this point, willfully ignorant and embarrassing to read.
July 26, 2014
If your interested in medicine, medical history or a medical student this book is for you. A casual reader would find the technical jargon a bit much and I myself had to struggle through some parts. In some places the age of the book shows especially in outdated terminology. It was a challenging read but interesting none the less.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews