Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/560

 was originally inflicted by the lance. He did not believe that the immediate damage done to the frontal portion of the cranium and to the left eye had anything to do with the fatal issue.

FORCEPS DEVISED IN 1552 BY AMBROISE PARÉ FOR DRAWING OUT THE CUT ENDS OF ARTERIES AFTER THE AMPUTATION OF A LIMB, AND HOLDING THEM WHILE THE LIGATURE IS BEING APPLIED.

(From von Gurlt's Geschichte der Chirurgie, Berlin, 1898.)

represents the earlier; the later pattern (see text.)

One of the greatest discoveries made by Paré in the domain of surgery is his method of promptly, effectively and safely arresting the bleeding from the divided vessels of the stump after the amputation of a limb. This discovery was made between the years 1552 and 1564, before which period it had been customary to arrest the bleeding by applying the red-hot cautery iron to the exposed ends of the divided vessels. The new method consisted in tying a ligature (preferably doubled) around the free or cut end of the blood-vessel, and allowing it to remain undisturbed in situ until, as the result of a localized suppuration, it should be cast off. The accompanying cuts (Figs. 23 and 24) which have been copied from an earlier edition (1585) of Paré's work, represent the kind of forceps which he employed in separating the free end of the artery or vein from the soft tissues in which it was imbedded—a preliminary procedure which enabled him to tie the ligature firmly around the vessel. The earlier pattern of forceps (Fig. 23) was not equipped with a spring, the purpose of which was to keep the opposing blades separated, but the later pattern (Fig. 24) has this useful addition. Another instrument which owes its origin to the inventive genius of Paré is the grooved director—an instrument that is of great value to the surgeon, particularly in operations for the relief of strangulated hernia.