Paré, Ambroise << pa RAY, ahm BRWAZ >> (1510?-1590), a French surgeon, made important contributions to the use of surgery in medicine. Paré stopped treating gunshot and surgical wounds by pouring boiling oil over them, which was the practice at that time. Instead, he came to rely on the power of nature to heal his patients. His motto was, “I bandaged him, God healed him.” In Paré’s day, doctors considered surgery beneath their dignity, and most operations were performed by barber-surgeons. Paré’s work helped to raise the standing of surgery.
Paré was born at Bourg-Hersent, near Laval. His formal education was sketchy, but he served as an apprentice to a barber-surgeon and learned on the battlefield as a surgeon in the French army. In 1552, Paré became surgeon to Henry II of France. He later became first surgeon to Charles IX and Henry III. Paré died on Dec. 20, 1590.
