in obscurity; and so striking was the contrast which this period presented to that of the succeeding reign, that they have not inappositely been termed the iron and the golden age of surgery.
"At this period,” says the Editor of the Memoirs of the Count de Brienne, "the sciences were far from responding as they now do to the patronage of the administration. Surgery was less advanced than medicine; an absurd prejudice impeded the only department of the healing art which has since made great progress. As late as 1668 the surgeons were under the jurisdiction of the first barber of the king. Felix, who at a later period operated on Louis XIV. for fistula, represented to his Majesty the great inconvenience of this arrangement, and procured its reform. The writers of his time inform us, that for two months before the operation on Louis, he continually rehearsed it in the hospitals of Paris. The simplest operations of surgery were in fact dangerous: the most celebrated surgeons were not sure of a successful venesection : this is confirmed by the privilege granted to the king’s surgeon to dismiss any one he pleased from the presence when bleeding the King, or any member of the royal family. Felix, celebrated as he was, always availed himself of the privilege, while Dinois, surgeon to the Queen and children of France, piqued himself on never having claimed it [1].”
- ↑ Eclaircissemens sur les Mémoires de Brienne.
