Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/538

 CHAPTER XXXIX

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SURGERY IN FRANCE DURING THE RENAISSANCE.—PIERRE FRANCO

Von Gurlt speaks of Pierre Franco as "one of the most skilful surgeons and at the same time one of the most original medical writers of the sixteenth century." He and his contemporary, Ambroise Paré, were of French birth, and to France therefore belongs the conspicuous distinction of having contributed to medical science during the Renaissance two of its most illuminating and efficient laborers. These men, who were the leading operative surgeons in France during the first half of the sixteenth century, did not owe their education as physicians to the official training provided by the Medical Faculty, but partly to the men who were classed as barbers and surgeons, or barber-surgeons (Collège de St. Côme), and still more to their own efforts. They gathered practical knowledge wherever they might—largely from their official connection with armies during the progress of different wars. Further details with regard to their personal characters and the principal events of their professional careers will be furnished in the following brief sketches.

Pierre Franco.—Pierre Franco was born in the village of Turriers, in Provence (now the Department of Basses-Alpes), about the year 1500. He received his instruction in surgery from itinerant lithotomists, operators for cataract, hernia-healers and men of that class; and it is quite likely that, in the early days of his professional career in Provence, he was himself a practitioner of this humble type. At a somewhat later date he left the southern part of France and took up his residence in Switzerland, first at Berne and then at Lausanne. He probably left Provence