Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 873.6

HUGUES RAVATON (b. 1707?) Pratique moderne de la chirurgie. Chez Vincent, imprimeur-librarie 1776 First edition 17 cm.

First edition of Ravaton’s extensive collected textbook of surgery. A renowned army surgeon, Ravaton’s work on gunshot wounds was acknowledged as the best at the time. For an arm amputation Ravaton recommended four assistants – two to hold down the patient, one to administer pain-relieving cordials and the fourth to assist in the operation by handing instruments and applying dressings. For a field hospital dealing with some 2000 men injured in a day of major campaign (from a force of 20,000) he considered that one experienced surgeon was needed, backed up by ten competent aides and 30 student surgeons. Ravaton did not use cautery to control bleeding: “to control hemorrhage in wounds of the extremities Ravaton relied on trurniquet, ligatue, tamponade of the wound, and firm compression by external wrappings with Andre de la Croix, a type of adhesive plaster. He kept ‘a relaxed tourniquet’ available should secondary hemorrhage occur” (Wangensteen & Wangensteen p.32) Chapter VII in volume I deals with the teeth. The finely engraved plates illustrate medical and surgical instruments and apparatus – amonst them the tin boot that Ravaton designed.

See Related Record(s): 873.5

Cited references: Wellcome IV p.478

John Martin M.D. Endowment