THE MORNING LIST
There is something for every taste. At the beginning of 2023, the editorial staff of the weekly supplement “Science & medicine” has read and selected for you these books for all ages, and even for children.
Ambroise Paré put in bubbles
Reading a book on the history of medicine often means immersing yourself in spectacular tales of disease discoveries and cures by pioneers. It is also an opportunity to appreciate the progress made since then, in terms of technical, therapeutic and ethical progress… In the pantheon of great figures in medicine and surgery, there is, in a good place, the Frenchman Ambroise Paré. The journey of the father of modern surgery and his « inventions », in particular for the management of war wounds, are a must in general works on the history of medicine. Complete biographies have even been devoted to him. The bubbles of the itinerary of the surgeon of the Renaissance, in an opus of a hundred pages published in January by Les Arènes, gives a welcome youthful touch to the legend. Especially since its sustained pace borders on an adventure story. The reader follows Ambroise Paré through hills and valleys, from his Parisian beginnings in 1533 at the Hôtel-Dieu, as a young barber, until his death in 1590, at the age of 80, after many adventures on the battlefields and at the bedside of several kings of France.
Written by Pierre Boisserie and Jean-Noël Fabiani-Salmon – a former cardiovascular surgeon and recognized specialist in the history of medicine – and illustrated by Vincent Wagner, the comic strip immediately shows the strong personality of the hero, who quickly wants come out of his condition as a barber dedicated to “plant the lancet, handle the enema, pierce the boils, make and redo the bandages” to become a real surgeon in a long robe. Without learning Latin or bowing to the teaching of masters he considers incompetent.
Throughout the pages (interspersed with some useful didactic passages on the medical context of the time), we come across other great figures of the Renaissance, such as the anatomist André Vésale – whom Paré will visit in Italy and who will introduce him to the painter Titien – or the writer François Rabelais.
We also learn that the daring and gifted surgeon, willingly presented as being at the origin of many innovations in military and civilian surgery (arterial ligatures, prostheses, stone extraction techniques, etc.), was also interested in many other subjects, such as gynecology-obstetrics or paediatrics. In these areas, his theories have – fortunately – not remained in the annals… “We must not delay in marrying young girls after the appearance of their first menstruation under penalty of causing their death”, thus professed Ambroise Paré. He also maintained that a pregnant woman would give birth to a boy if “the hot and vigorous semen of the man prevails in quality as well as in quantity over that of the colder woman”. In his postscript, Jean-Noël Fabiani-Salmon acknowledges that the reputation of “father of surgery” is partly a myth. In particular, this one did not invent the ligation of the arteries – “at most he made himself the cantor”, writes the professor. Nevertheless, this trip to the XVIe century in the footsteps of Master Paré remains fascinating.
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