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French Military Surgical Instruments in the Early 1700s

In the 1700's, there were a lot of surgical developments throughout Europe, with France as the forerunner of the technology. Until this time, most surgeons, called barber-surgeons, were trained by apprenticeship and had shady character. In the 1700's, they were being trained in medical schools, with new instruments being produced to stop bleeding and infection in wounds caused by military combat.

  1. Tourniquets

    • If a leg or other appendage was amputated cleanly by a musket or cannon shot, surgeons were more likely to be unwilling to intervene with further amputation. In 1718, a surgeon named Jean Louis-Petit discovered that binding a main artery tightly stopped bleeding during amputations, one of the most common surgeries of the time. Thus, he invented the tourniquet, which operated by twisting a screw device that compressed on the amputee's lower abdomen and upper leg. This allowed the surgeon to amputate higher on the leg. It is now considered by many as one of the "most important surgical advancements before the advent of anesthesia," according to ScienceScripe.

    Debridement

    • Pierre-Joseph Desault pioneered the technique of debridement. This instrumental procedure involved the removal of necrotic, which is dead or dying tissue, from a severe wound in order to prevent infection. The term "debridement" comes from the French term "brider," which means to curb or check. Desault coined the term for his procedure, in which he used a trimming blade to remove the infectious tissue from the wound. There also was the use of "partial debridement," which was the opening or dilation of wounds created by gunshot or swords to promote drainage. John Hunter, a famous British surgeon, disagreed with this practice, believing that wounds should heal "under a scab."

    Locked Forceps

    • Along with the partial debridement, surgeons used specialized tools to remove musket balls from the flesh if they were still embedded in the wound. Typically, locked forceps were used for this procedure. However, tools like this were usually not sanitized, possibly causing more harm than good, despite the number of antiseptic procedures available. The Academy of Sciences and the Arts and Fine Letters in Dijon promoted a contest to discover the best essay on disinfectant methods. The winning essay was on the use of turpentine, aloe, benzoin, and alcohol. With the success created by this essay and the procedures developed by others, surgeons typically would delay amputations in favor of treatment with antiseptics.

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