[A dart and a microscope for the King--imaginary memoirs of a current microsurgery specialist addressing the Sun King about diseases of the Great Century].
Based on the facts described in King's Louis XIV medical journal, this lecture makes the amazing inventory of the illnesses and the poor state of the medical art in a period when medical empiricism was prevalent. It is, however, the courage of patients and their resistance to utterly absurd and painful treatments that foremost arouse our admiration. By the way, this historical journey also provides the author with a pretext for valorising current developments--in comparison with treatments of the past--such as in the field of microsurgery where some pathologies that were up till now considered to be inaccessible to any possibility of surgical anatomical or functional restoration, are now controlled.
Lengelé
B
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Laboratoire de Morphologie Expérimentale et Service de Microchirurgie Reconstructrice, Université catholique de Louvain, Bruxelles.
D001530:Belgium; D005602:France; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D010336:Pathology / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends