0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

304 RECENT TIMES. ,
after returning the prolapsed bowel, sewn together with
gold or lead wire or thread. Great credit is due to J
AMBROISE PARE in that he limited as, far as possible %
operative interference to- cases of strangulated hernia.
Only in such cases did he perform regular herniotomy,
It is true that other surgeons, as P FRANCO and RoussEf,
did the same operation before him ; but the procedure *
was laid upon a scientific foundation first by A. PAR:E »;
and a prospect was, in consequence, held out * to
patients with this affection of being cured, whereas at an
earlier time they were generally left to their fate * The H
operative relief of urethral stricture by forcible division
with a knife, known at an earlier period to surgeons of the *«
time of the Roman Empire, was rescued from oblivion by /*
A. PARE. Bougies, also, were made use of in these affections,
and were smeared with appropriate medicaments;^
these were especially recommended by LAGUNA.
The knowledge of plastic operations had in the 16th *
century long ceased to be a secret of the empirics of
Norcia and Preci. Several able surgeons devoted them-; >|
selves to them, and acquired great skill in performing them.
GASPARE TAGLIACOZZI, Professor at Bologna, obtained the
greatest success in this branch of surgery and has left a
thorough description of the procedure.f To replace the
loss of substance he employed the skin of the upper part •'!
of the arm, like A. BRANCA before him. From all parts of
Europe patients came to him to be operated on. The i
story that he had at one time in his hospital 12 German
Counts, ig French Marquises, 100 Spanish Grandees and*
one English Esquire, who had all lost their noses through
dissolute living and desired fresh ones from him,J if only a
witty anecdote yet shows how widely spread his fame as an
operator was. TAGLIACOZZI earned but small thanks fo|
* E.ALBERT: Die'Herniologie der Alten, S. 180 et seq.—A. GYERGYAI in
the Deutschen Arch. f. Gesch. d. Medicin, Leipzig 1880, Bd. iii, S. 326 et seq.
t De chirurgia curtoium per insitionem, Ed. TROSCHEL, Berol. 1831. ,|
X J. BICKERSTAFF: The Tattler, Lcndon 1723, iv, No. 260.