Trephine Instruments, 16th Century

These are trephines; drills for boring holes in the skull. Their use is very ancient indeed. Prehistoric skulls have been discovered with evidence of trepanning, including unmistakable signs of healing to indicate that the patient had survived the procedure. In Pare's time, the procedure was used to relieve pressure within the skull or to remove damaged bone. The 1585 edition of Pare's Oeuvres (Collected Works) represents the final summary of his life's work. It has over twelve hundred folio pages, with nearly 400 illustrations drawing upon a lifetime of practice. Four editions of the Oeuvres were published during his lifetime, and this is the last and the most complete. Often his descriptions of difficult cases end with the same simple sentence, I treated him, but God cured him. Ambroise Pare (1510 - December 20, 1590) was a French surgeon, anatomist, inventor and one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1580s 1585 Ambroise Ambrose Collected Oeuvres Pare Pares Parey Surgery Trepan Trepanation Trepanning Trephaning Trephination Trephine Trephining

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR