12 AMBROISE 



In the end, thanks to my gifts and presents, he gave it to 

 me; which was to boil, in oil of lilies, young whelps just 

 born, and earth-worms prepared with Venetian turpentine. 

 Then I was joyful, and my heart made glad, that I had 

 understood his remedy, which was like that which I had ob- 

 tained by chance. 



See how I learned to treat gunshot wounds ; not by books. 



My Lord Marshal Montejan remained Lieutenant-General 

 for the King in Piedmont, having ten or twelve thousand 

 men in garrison in the different cities and castles, who were 

 often fighting among themselves with swords and other 

 weapons, even with arquebuses. And if there were four 

 wounded, I always had three of them; and if there were 

 question of cutting off an arm or a leg, or of trepanning, 

 or of reducing a fracture or a dislocation, I accomplished 

 it all. The Lord Marshal sent me now here now there to 

 dress the soldiers committed to me who were wounded in 

 other cities beside Turin, so that I was always in the coun- 

 try, one way or the other. 



M. the Marshal sent to Milan, to a physician of no less 

 reputation than the late M. le Grand for his success in 

 practice, to treat him for an hepatic flux, whereof in the 

 end he died. This physician was some while at Turin to 

 treat him, and was often called to visit the wounded, where 

 always he found me; and I was used to consult with him, 

 and with some other surgeons; and when we had resolved 

 to do any serious work of surgery, it was Ambroise Pare 

 that put his hand thereto, which I would do promptly and 

 skilfully, and with great assurance, insomuch that the physi- 

 cian wondered at me, to be so ready in the operations of 

 surgery, and I so young. One day, discoursing with the 

 Lord Marshal, he said to him: 



" Signer, tu hai un Chirurgico giovane di anni, ma egli e 

 vecchio di sapere e di esperientia: Guardato bene, perche 

 egli ti fara servicio et honore." That is to say, " Thou hast 

 a surgeon young in age, but he is old in knowledge and 

 experience: take good care of him, for he will do thee 

 service and honour." But the good man did not know I 

 had lived three years at the Hotel Dieu in Paris, with the 

 patients there. 



