Surgery


Cautery (1)

Brenneisen, um 1800 


One of the oldest problems of the surgeons is haemostasis. In diffuse bleeding, astringent plants (oak bark, strawberry root etc) or minerals (alum) were probably put on in the early phase. In heavy bleeding, the spurting vessel was compressed. Already 3000 BC The Egyptians knew the cautery ... Apart from such practical measures, the use of magic played a role until the 19th century: "A saying from the Bible is quietly spoken to and crosses the bleeding spot three times with the forefinger" (Georg Friedrich Most, Encyclopaedia of Folk Medicine, 1843 p. 90).
In the 10th century, the Arabs began to use the cautery in psychiatric therapy: epilepsy, melancholy and headache (focal points on the skull).


Most surgeons have always had burnt irons in their instruments - a variety of forms were in use - and thus burned out hemorrhoids, bleeding wounds, amputation stumps, etc. Recall the reluctance Ambroise PARE felt to burn the soldiers - replacing the red-hot iron with oil and adding yolk.
Somewhat surprising is the burning sensation of toothache (foci in the oral cavity), pleurisy, dropsy (foci of the body).


In many cases was also cut with these irons (Italy of the Middle Ages).
In many parts of Germany, the insane were burned with red-hot iron, a so-called "brand seal" imposed on them. One hoped, in this way, to burn out the disease demon, or, as others thought, to create a hole through which one could chase it out. For the indications of cauterization see also the article PAQUELIN (1)
The set presented here comes from the flea market in Metz-Grigy, it was in an ensemble of human medical, especially gynecological instruments - this to the suspicion that they could be veterinary instruments. Nine iron, which could be clicked into a change handle: while one iron was in use, the next one was already brought to red heat in the coal fire. The name of the manufacturer is engraved in two of the iron: BOURDEAUX. "Bourdeaux l'ainé" was an instrument maker in Montpellier.


As the Englishman Percivall POTT (1714-1788) - the same, after whom the "morbus POTT", i. vertebral tuberculosis is named - when this renounced the iron, this was the impetus to the general abandonment of the method. But now came the thermo and Elektrokoagulationsgeräte in fashion and the Ätzstifte.
The Frenchman called the round iron tips "boutons de feu". In folklore, the method lives on, e.g. in the saying: "C'est un cautère sur une jamb de de bois", i. you're burning a wooden leg to say that this medicine is not going to do anything!

 

 

Lit.:

Walter von Brunn: Zur Geschichte der Blutstillung, Die medizinische Welt 9 (1935), S. 107f.

E. F. Heeger: Zur Geschichte der Blutstillung im Altertum und Mittelalter, Wiener klinische Wochenschrift (1910), S. 1006-1008 und 1079-1080.

Michael Sachs, Geschichte der operativen Chirurgie, Bd. I: Historische Entwicklung chirurgischer Operationen, Kaden Verlag Heidelberg, 2000.

Michael Schlathölter, Geschichte der Theorie und Praxis der Wundheilung und Wundbehandlung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Münster 2005