Book: J.A. Brambilla, Instrumentum Chirurgicum Militare (Vienna 1782) (ex Signet Library, Edinburgh. From the Science Museum, Wellcome Museum of the History of Medicine library. Located at the Science Museum Library at Wroughton. Shelfmark: F O.B. BRA BRAMBILLA.

'Military Surgical Instruments' is the rough translation from the Latin of the title of this book. Latin was still widely used in books for educated people in the 1700s. The book was written by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla (1728-1800) on the various surgical instruments one might encounter on the battlefield. This page shows a number of different bullet extractors. Brambilla was entrusted by Joseph II (1741-90), the Holy Roman Emperor, with reorganising military medicine instruction in Vienna, Austria. The time and money Joseph II was willing to invest in medical teaching demonstrates the importance he attached to medicine on the battlefield.

In 1785, the Josephium Academy was opened in Vienna to educate men in military surgery. The lectures were delivered in German rather than Latin so a larger number of men could be trained.