Country Surgeon in 1674: Traite des Playes de Teste by Antoine Boirel Chief – Surgeon of Argentan in Normandy and his Aphorism by Dr Louis Thomas from Paris Faculty of Medicine Librairy 1880

Antoine Boirel (1621-1718) is a Lieutenant des Maitres – Chirurgiens (surgeon- chief) from Argentan, a little town in Normandy, at the end of the XVIIth century. He is supposed to be one of the best surgeons of his time. He is not a barber; he prefers “ Neurosurgery” and write this only book Traite des Playes de teste (wounders of head ), where you can find his “job”, diet, a lot of medications, technical aspects of trepanation, the following of patients among the humors’ theory and the beginning of blood circulation. Twenty cases are reported where you can also appreciate the medical way of life and the country-society during Louis XIV’ times. The “aphorism” of Dr Louis Thomas, from the library of the Faculté de Médecine of Paris in 1880 brings a good complement about History of Surgery and history of trepanation from the XVIIth to the XIXth Century with comparative bibliographies.