improvement, one of the most important made in surgery (1552), reached England from France only after the lapse of eighty-seven years! There can be scarcely any doubt, however, that individual English surgeons had already learned about Paré's improved method at a much earlier date.
State of Surgery in England During the Seventeenth Century.—Before I pass on to the consideration of the state of surgery in England during the seventeenth century it seems desirable that I should say a few words with regard to the relative standing of the two branches of the medical profession—the physicians and the surgeons—in the esteem of their fellow Englishmen at this period of history. In France, it will be remembered, a surgeon was looked upon, even as recently as during the first half of the sixteenth century, as a man of inferior social standing, perhaps a shade better than an apothecary, but certainly far below his more highly educated associate—the physician. The favors extended by French Royalty to Ambroise Paré and the very high esteem in which he was held by French society in general effected a great change in the relative status of the two classes of practitioners in France; and, as a result of this change in public opinion, medical practitioners, subsequent to 1560 or 1570, were led to realize that a surgeon, if sufficiently educated, if earnestly devoted to his professional work, and if intent upon helping his fellow men rather than upon accumulating a fortune, might confidently aspire to a position of equality with the best physicians of the community in which he lived. In England a similar change of opinion in regard to the honorableness of the career of surgeon took place about this time, probably in consequence of the great reputation gained by Gale, Clowes and Woodall. In both countries the change occurred slowly, and in France what was gained during Paré's lifetime seemed afterward to be lost for a period of several years. But eventually the prevailing opinion again became favorable to the surgeons, and from that time to the present they have enjoyed an ever-increasing esteem in public opinion. But there was a brief period, early in the seven-
