'Chirurgie' [Surgery], France, 1780

print. engraving. Plate 17, 18 `Chirurgie' [Surgery]. From the 1780 quarto edition of `Dictionnaire Raisonee des Sciences des Arts et des Metiers', edited by Diderot & D' Alembert.

The print on the left shows a trephination in progress and the surgical instruments required for the procedure. The patient’s head is being held down as, in a time before anaesthetics, this surgery would have been painful. The surgery would also have been dangerous as antisepsis was unheard of in this period.

The print on the right shows a tourniquet, an instrument vital during amputation surgery. This print is from the 1780 edition of 'Dictionnaire raisonée des sciences des arts et des métiers', edited by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond D'Alembert. The title translates as Classified Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Trades. This was the first French encyclopaedia that aimed to introduce new ideas but also create a record of existing techniques such as those in surgery.