Mere knowledge without experience does not give the surgeon much self-confidence.
Small will be the influence exerted by him who chooses surgery as a career simply for what he may make out of it.
The frequent changing of physicians is not likely to bring comfort to the patient.
The facts already discovered are few in comparison with those which are yet to be brought to light. We must not allow ourselves to lie down or fall asleep under the impression that the ancients knew all or have divulged all that is worth knowing. What they have accomplished should be utilized by us as a sort of scaffolding from which a more extensive view may be obtained.
In another place Paré expresses the same sentiment in
a somewhat different form, as follows:—
My professional brethren must not expect to find any new and
startling facts [Paré is speaking here of his treatise on surgery],
but simply here and there some little addition to our previous stock
of knowledge; for the good Guy de Chauliac has taught us that
we are like the child who sits astride the giant's neck; that is, we
can see all that he sees and just a little more—or, in other words,
we are able, through the aid afforded by the writings of our predecessors,
to learn all that they have learned, and may at the same
time acquire a little further knowledge through our own observations.
A remedy that has been thoroughly tested is better than one recently invented.
An injury which opens a large blood-vessel is likely to lead the victim of such a wound to the tomb.
It is always wise to hold out hope to the patient, even if the symptoms point strongly to a fatal issue.
All through his professional career, but more especially
during the later years, Paré was repeatedly annoyed by
the efforts which the Medical Faculty made to bring him
into disrepute. These men were bitterly jealous of him on
account of the great favor which he enjoyed at Court, and
so they adopted every possible means to injure his reputation.
When the complete collection of his writings was
published in 1575, they petitioned the authorities not to
allow these "works of a very impudent and ignorant man"
