Clayton PARKHILL1860–1902

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

kings of France. His reputation and political position led to his admission to the College de St. Côme, the elite group of academic surgeons in France. In this manner he formed a bridge between the barber–surgeons, surgeons of the short robe, and the academic surgeons of the long robe. His accomplishments helped to launch the progression of surgery from a hereditary craft to an intellectual yet pragmatic discipline.

Because Paré was an accomplished and prolific writer, a great deal is known about his life, opin- ions, and practice. His books, written in French rather than the Latin of the academicians, enjoyed a wide circulation. His personal and autobio- graphic account, The Apologie and Treatise of Ambroise Paré, Containing the Voyages Made into Divers Places, gives a good description of the circumstances in which he practiced. His impor- tance in the history of surgery has been delineated by Geoffrey Keynes.

Paré’s contribution to surgery is usually sum- marized by mentioning his three important “dis- coveries”—the harmfulness of treating gunshot wounds with boiling oil, the use of the ligature in amputation, and podalic version in obstetrics—

but in reality his contribution was far greater than this. He was, in fact, by virtue of his personality and his independent mind, the emancipator of surgery from the dead hand of dogma. There was no comparable practitioner, during his time, in England or in any other country, and his influence was felt in every part of Europe. He left in his col- lected “Works” a monument to his own skill and humanity, which is unsurpassed in the history of surgery.

Of particular interest is Paré’s description, the first, of intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck and epiphyseal separations of the proximal femoral epiphysis.

Reference

1. Paré A (1951) The Apologie and Treatise of Ambroise Paré (edited with an introduction by Keynes G). London, Falcon Educational Books, pp zx–xxi

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Clayton PARKHILL

1860–1902

Clayton Parkhill was born in rural Pennsylvania.

He attended the Jefferson Medical College in

Philadelphia and graduated in 1883. After 2 years

of postgraduate training, he opened his surgical

practice in Denver. He taught anatomy at the

University of Denver and became professor of

surgery at the Gross Medical School. Later, he

became professor of surgery and dean of the

medical school at the University of Colorado in

Boulder. An ingenious surgeon, he is remembered

for his early contribution to the development of

external skeletal fixation for the treatment of frac-

tures. His medical career was interrupted by mil-

itary service in the Spanish–American War, which

took him to army camps throughout the south and

to Puerto Rico. Shortly after returning to reopen

his practice in Denver, he became ill. Appendici-

tis was diagnosed, and an operation was pro-

posed. At this critical moment his surgical

judgment failed. He refused the operation and

died shortly afterward of peritonitis.