Surgeons Are Doctors Too

Damien Ihrig, MA, MLIS
Curator, John Martin Rare Book Room

This month we highlight a book (but two works!) by an 18^th-century French surgeon who helped change the perception of surgeons in the medical community. Antoine Louis authored many works, many of them critical of the physicians who dominated the practice of medicine.

For centuries surgeons were thought of by physicians as, at best, less educated technicians and, at worst, uneducated boors who would cut anything for money.

Although eventually a separate discipline with its own schools, societies, and formal training, surgery in Europe had its roots in the barber-surgeon tradition. Often employed in the military, barber-surgeons used their tools for surgical and dental procedures as well as for cutting hair.

The 16^th-century predecessor of Louis, Ambroise Paré, helped lay the groundwork for the modern evolution of surgery into a medical specialty. He challenged surgical dogma at the time and wrote many works, always in French as he did not know Latin, describing his new techniques and inventions.

Scottish surgeon John Hunter, a contemporary of Louis, established the empirical foundations of modern surgery. Echoing a common theme among early modern medical pioneers, he rejected the status quo and sought to understand surgical knowledge from the ground up. He based his conclusions on his own observations, experiences, and experiments. With his skill as both an experimentalist and writer, Hunter nearly singlehandedly set surgery on the path to its modern place in medicine.

By the 19^th century, barber-surgeons ceased to exist and surgeons were well-trained doctors who chose surgery as a specialization. Read more below about Antoine Louis, his works on hereditary diseases and cancer, his little-known connection to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, and his role in helping to create the modern surgical profession.

Be careful with those fireworks and happy reading!

Hours

The Room is available Monday-Thursday, 8:30-5:00 (U.S. Central) and Friday by appointment. Face masks are welcome. To guarantee the Room is available, please contact me at damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu.

Tell us a little bit about yourself...

Hello, Friends of the John Martin Rare Book Room! My name is Carlisle Isley, and I am a new practicum student at the JMRBR. In June of 2021, I moved from Rwanda to Iowa City to pursue a Master’s in Library Information Science. Due to the international work of my parents, my childhood was a multicultural adventure. As well as Rwanda, my family had stops in Saudi Arabia, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Jordan. These experiences inform my scholarship and practice.

Why the JMRBR?

I am doing my practicum in the JMRBR because of my interest in the history of medicine and how art and science come together at a specific point in rare books. I am also interested in the racial, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that affect access to information, including health information.

What are you reading?

Since I started in the Rare Book Room, I have picked up the following that the community might be interested in:  

• Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpêtrière
• Poetry in Medicine: An Anthology of Poems About Doctors, Patients, Illness, and Healing
• The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
• Crazy like us: the globalization of the American Psyche
• L’Image Obscene (The Obscene Images): Parisian Hospital Break Room Graffiti

Book of the Month

LOUIS, ANTOINE (1723-1792). Dissertation sur la question--comment se fait la transmission des maladies héréditaires? [Dissertation on the question--how are hereditary diseases transmitted?] and Observation et remarques sur les effets du virus cancéreux [Observation and remarks on the effects of the cancer virus], Printed in Paris at Chez Delaguette, 1749. 17 cm tall.

Louis was born to a military surgeon family. His father was a surgeon-major, the senior surgeon of a regiment, at a military hospital. Louis apprenticed under his father and by 1743 had joined another regiment as a surgeon himself. He soon went to Paris, though, to further his education at the Salpêtrière hospital, which you may remember from such JMRBR newsletters as "Volume 2, Issue 4." In 1750 he was appointed professor of physiology, holding that position for 40 years.

Louis was at the head of a movement to push back against the negative perception of surgeons driven by physicians. He wrote often, and effectively, to argue for equal status for surgeons.

And he was not afraid to put his money where his mouth was. Upon the completion of his stint at Salpêtrière, he could have slid right into a position at the college of Surgery, but instead, he wrote and publically defended his thesis, Positiones anatomicae et chirurgicae (1749). Both of which he accomplished in Latin, thereby demonstrating that surgeons were as liberally educated as their physician colleagues.

While also performing surgeries, writing, and maintaining a busy administrative calendar, Louis found time to invent and improve surgical

instruments. His renown eventually led to an association with the most infamous period in French history. A physician opposed to capital punishment petitioned the National Assembly (formed shortly after the French Revolution) to advocate for a more "humane" way to execute criminals.

This would be accomplished by using a machine designed to quickly decapitate them. The Assembly eventually petitioned Louis to design and build it. Originally referred to as the Louisette, it eventually adopted the name synonymous with the Reign of Terror - the Guillotine, named after the physician who originally proposed its use, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin.

Louis wrote and published throughout his life, including several biographies of other surgeons, Encyclopédie entries, and pioneering works on medical jurisprudence. Two boxes of unpublished works were found while cataloging his belongings after his death. These are two of his earlier books. The second is an interesting piece on cancerous growths and remedies, in which Louis refers to cancer as a virus. We now know of several viruses that can lead to cancer.

Our copy is an adorable little book with beautiful marbled endpapers, a closeup of which you can see in the header above. The contemporary sheepskin cover shows that the book has lived a busy life. It's a deep, rich brown color with several gilt flowers along the spine. The paper is in excellent condition, showing few signs of age or damage.

Contact me to view this book or any others from this or past newsletters: damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154 to arrange a visit in person or over Zoom.