Talk:Ambroise Paré

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Was War the Most Important Factor in the Development and Spread of Pare's Ideas?

In the 1500’s Ambroise Pare was an acclaimed French surgeon. His ideas and work was very much ahead of it’s time and he even became official royal surgeon for kings, Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. But what was the reason for Pare’s success? What factors meant that his ideas were developed and widely spread?

Some people believe that Pare’s accomplishments were mainly due to France’s campaigns in Italy and this is also my view. The war brought about many opportunities for Pare that benefited his work and even aided the spread of it. However, although I believe that was the most responsible for the development of his ideas I do not believe is was most responsible for the spread of them. The factor that I feel spread Pare’s ideas the greatest is a combination of both communication and technology.

There are many, many reasons why I believe war was an incredibly important factor in developing the ideas Pare had. Firstly, war meant many casualties and therefore many patients for Pare to practice on. Any surgeon’s ideas and technique can be improved with practice and Pare is an example of this. Pare was also extremely adept in the treatment of battle wounds which is one of the examples of the skills Pare gained by treating war casualties.

These casualties also gave Pare the opportunity to try out new ideas. He could use the wounded soldiers as ‘guinea pigs’ to try out new remedies and procedures and then record his findings.

But the main reason that I believe war is the most important reason for the development and spread of Pare’s ideas is because Pare is mostly famous for his discovery of ligatures and revival of Roman ideas that led to finds like the turpentine and egg ointment. Pare would never have discovered these things if it had not been for war as the ointment he created was a substitute for the boiling oil used in cauterization which had run out. Ligatures were also discovered as a result of war as it was an idea Pare had to stop the bleeding from amputation (threads were tied around the arteries.)

Even though it is not the greatest factor, war would also have slightly aided the spread of Pare’s ideas. The men that Pare healed in the war would have been incredibly grateful for his skills and would have then have told other people about how great a surgeon he was. Pare’s reputation would have grown and his ideas more widespread.

In the spreading of Pare’s ideas communication and technology are linked together. The printing press had very recently been invented and it meant that books could more easily and cheaply be mass printed. Therefore, books about Roman medicine could be got hold of and these are where Pare got his communication with the Roman doctors such as Galen. This meant he could look back at their ideas and develop his own. But as well as this the printing press allowed for Pare’s own books like ‘Works on Surgery’ could be printed in great numbers and could be obtained easier meaning his ideas were spread further.

Although Communication, technology and war are the main reasons for the development and spread or Pare’s ideas there are other factors that influenced it as well.

The first of these is chance, Pare did know if the ointment that he created was going to work, he took a chance on the Roman recipe and by chance it worked. Luck is a part of all successes. Then there is Pare’s own individual genius. There is no doubt that he was a clever man which would explain where his ideas came from. He learnt very quickly from experience having been an apprentice to his brother and working at the ‘Dieu’ hospital in Paris. He also came up with ideas that no one else had thought of. There is no doubt he was intelligent.

In conclusion, although there were many factors that aided the development of Pare’s ideas, I believe that war is the most important as it was this that brought about the discoveries that he got his reputation from. Then communication and technology are the factors that led to the spread of these discoveries as other doctors and surgeons could easily read Pare’s work and incorporate his ideas into their own work, test his ideas for themselves to see if they were correct as well as develop his ideas further.

By Natalie K

Notice: Vandalism

The user whose ip is 72.10.105.220 has been vandalizing many articles with insults towards medical doctors.

[edit] Reason for not using oil

I know several references say that Ambroise Paré substituted egg yolk, oil of roses, and turpentine for boiling oil because the the boiling oil ran out but I have read that it was because people that could not afford doctors fees were treated with egg yolk mixture. BernardZ 07:20, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 02:14, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] grammar and other problems

The article has several grammatical errors, including the very first sentence, which has two verbs.

The article omits the interesting detail that Pare started out as a barber (a provision which, in those days, included almost any contact with the body, including the treatment of wounds) and that "official" doctors treated him as an outsider even after he was appointed the royal surgeon. CharlesTheBold (talk) 03:27, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Just be bold and update the article yourself! In the meantime, I already updated the grammar and style of the article, corrected the problem in the very first sentence etc. --Cyfal (talk) 20:45, 26 March 2008 (UTC)