Work record

Journeys in Diverse Places

Name: Journeys in Diverse Places
Author: Ambroise Paré

Ambroise Paré

1585 (in his Apologie et traicté); English translation by Stephen Paget, 1897 · Renaissance Early Modern · Memoir · French

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Abstract

Written: Campaigns 1537–1569; published 1585; translated 1897
Setting: 1537–1569, the wars of Francis I and Henry II and the Wars of Religion; Turin, Brittany, Perpignan, Metz, Hesdin, Flanders and other theatres of war
Author: Ambroise Paré; trans. Stephen Paget (1897)
Country: Kingdom of France (France)
Language: French (Middle French)
Genre: Memoir
Form: Series of dated campaign narratives
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Vivid battlefield surgery scenes; some gruesome wounds.)

Occasion. Late in life the royal surgeon answered a learned physician who had attacked his surgical methods, not with Latin quotations but by telling the story of his long career with the armies.

First campaign. As a novice at Turin he was taught to scald gunshot wounds with boiling oil. When supplies ran out he used a soothing dressing instead and found next morning that those men had fared far better, so he abandoned the cruel practice.

Methods. Across three decades of campaigns he extracted bullets and arrows, set bones, opened skulls and closed blood vessels with thread during amputations rather than searing them.

Sieges and capture. He slipped into besieged Metz to the defenders' joy, survived the fall of Hesdin as a prisoner and won his freedom through his skill.

Character. The narratives show curiosity, humour and tenderness toward patients of every rank, friend or enemy. He admits fear, records cases that ended badly and describes the misery of sieges, famine and plague without glorifying war.

Faith. He repeatedly credits recovery to God rather than to himself, and his account mixes practical medicine with prayer and thanksgiving amid the horrors of war.

Key figures

Ambroise Paré: Army surgeon and later surgeon to the French kings
René de Montejan: Colonel-general under whom Paré first served at Turin
Duke of Guise: Commander of the defence of Metz

Summary

Journeys in Diverse Places is the war memoir of the French surgeon Ambroise Paré. He wrote it late in life as part of his Apology and Treatise, a reply to a physician who had attacked his methods, and he answered by describing what he had seen and done on campaign from 1537 to 1569. Stephen Paget translated it into English in 1897. The first journey, to Turin in 1537, contains the most famous story in the history of surgery. Young and inexperienced, Paré followed the accepted rule that gunshot wounds were poisoned and must be scalded with boiling oil. When his oil ran out, he dressed the remaining wounds with a mild mixture of egg yolk, oil of roses and turpentine, and lay awake fearing those soldiers would die. In the morning he found them resting comfortably, while the men treated with boiling oil were feverish and in pain. He resolved never again to burn the wounded so cruelly. Later journeys follow the French armies through Brittany, Perpignan, Germany, the siege of Metz in 1552, where the defenders cheered his arrival, and the fall of Hesdin in 1553, where he was captured and won his release by healing an ulcer that troubled the officer who held him. He describes treating princes and common soldiers, removing arrows and bullets, setting fractures, trepanning skulls, and tying off blood vessels during amputations instead of searing them with hot irons. He records failures as well as successes, the horrors of siege and plague, and his kindness to patients of every rank. Again and again he closes an account of a cure with the modest refrain that he dressed the wound and God healed it. The book gives a vivid picture of sixteenth-century warfare and medicine, and of a practical, curious and devout surgeon who trusted experience over tradition.

Plot or Argument

Turin, 1537
Paré runs out of boiling oil and discovers that gentle dressings heal gunshot wounds better.
Brittany and Perpignan, 1543
He treats wounded nobles and soldiers and describes locating and removing a bullet.
Germany and Danvilliers, 1552
He amputates a leg and ties the arteries with ligatures instead of cauterizing.
The siege of Metz, 1552
Sent into the besieged city, he is welcomed by the defenders and treats many wounded through the winter.
Hesdin, 1553
The town falls; Paré is taken prisoner and is set free after healing his captor's ulcer.
Later campaigns, 1557–1569
He serves at Saint-Quentin, Rouen, Dreux, Moncontour and in Flanders, treating princes and soldiers.

Lessons

Learning from accident
Paré's great discovery came from a shortage of supplies, but he noticed what happened and changed his practice. Openness to evidence turned an accident into progress.
- What happened when Paré's boiling oil ran out?
- Why did Paré trust what he saw over what he had been taught?
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Humility in healing
Paré's refrain, that he dressed the patient and God healed him, expresses humility about the limits of human skill and gratitude for recovery.
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Compassion in war
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Context

Gunpowder weapons spread across European battlefields in the early sixteenth century, and surgeons believed gunshot wounds were poisoned by the powder. Barber-surgeons were trained by apprenticeship and ranked far below university physicians who wrote in Latin.

Composition

Paré published Apologie et traicté contenant les voyages faicts en divers lieux in 1585 to defend his use of ligatures against attacks by a physician, Étienne Gourmelen. Stephen Paget translated the Journeys in Ambroise Paré and His Times (1897), from which the Harvard Classics (1910) reprinted them.

Reception

Paré's methods spread through his French writings, which were translated into Latin, English, German and Dutch. His memoir remains one of the most readable accounts of Renaissance surgery and war.

War Violence Illness / Body Faith / Religion Science / Knowledge Travel Journey

Comparisons

On the Fabric of the Human Body (Preface)
Vesalius, Paré's contemporary, reformed anatomy as Paré reformed surgery; both trusted observation over authority.
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (De Motu Cordis)
Harvey's experiments on the circulation came a generation later and explained why ligatures stop bleeding.
Galen: Selected Works
The ancient authority whose teaching on wounds Paré tested against experience.
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae (with Further Observations and A Continuation of Facts)
Like Paré, Jenner learned from practical experience outside the universities.

Quotes

“I dressed him, and God healed him.”

— Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse Places, The Journey to Turin. 1537 (and elsewhere), trans. Stephen Paget (1897).Quote card

Ain't I a Woman?, The speech
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Metaphysics, Book I (Alpha), Part 1
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“I did him the office of physician, apothecary, surgeon, and cook.”

— Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse Places, The Journey to Germany. 1552, trans. Stephen Paget (1897).Quote card

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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The boiling-oil episode at Turin.
Each time Paré says God healed a patient.
How Paré treats enemies and common soldiers.
Descriptions of ligatures and amputations.

Key terms and names

Barber-surgeon: A craftsman trained by apprenticeship to cut hair, bleed patients and perform surgery.
Cautery: Burning tissue with hot iron or boiling oil to stop bleeding or, it was thought, remove poison.
Ligature: A thread tied around a blood vessel to stop bleeding.
Trepanning: Cutting a hole in the skull, used to treat head injuries.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What did Paré use when his boiling oil ran out at Turin?
Comprehension How was Paré received at the siege of Metz?
Interpretation Why does Paré write about his journeys in reply to a critic?
Interpretation What does the refrain about God healing reveal about Paré?
Interpretation What does Paré's account of abandoning boiling oil teach about learning from experience rather than authority?
Big Question Should doctors follow established rules or their own experience when the two conflict?

Faith Connections

Sirach 38:1–4 (Scripture)
"Honour a physician": the Lord created medicines, and the physician's skill comes from God, a view Paré shares.
Luke 10:34 (Scripture)
The Samaritan pours oil and wine into the wounds; Paré too binds the wounds of strangers.
Galen, On the Natural Faculties (Great Conversation)
Paré tests ancient authority against what he sees.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Experience at the bedside and on the battlefield is a better guide for surgery than inherited authority, and healing comes from God working through the surgeon's care.

Rhetorical device: refrain. "I dressed him, and God healed him" returns throughout the journeys, tying each story to the same lesson.

Debate: Resolved: that experience is a better teacher than authority in medicine.

Memory Work

I dressed him, and God healed him.
The Journey to Turin. 1537 (and elsewhere), trans. Stephen Paget (1897). A short motto of humility in professional work.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Using two journeys, explain how Paré combined practical skill, compassion and faith.

Comparison with On the Fabric of the Human Body (Preface): Compare how Paré and Vesalius challenged medical authority in the sixteenth century.

Medical Lens

A first-hand account of Renaissance military surgery, including the abandonment of boiling oil for gunshot wounds and the use of ligatures in amputation.

Surgery WAR Wounds Physicians Doctors Pain

The Journey to Turin. 1537
The boiling-oil discovery.
WAR Wounds Surgery
The Journey to Danvilliers. 1552
Amputation with ligatures instead of cautery.
Surgery Pain

Creative Prompts

Fiction
Retell the night at Turin in 1537 from the point of view of a wounded soldier.
Essay
Explain how Paré's refrain shapes the reader's view of him as a surgeon and a man.
Classroom
Trace Paré's journeys on a map of sixteenth-century France and its borders.