Ambroise Paré, the uneducated son of a country artisan, became the greatest surgeon of the sixteenth century. Renowned as much for his compassion as his surgical skill, Paré guided his life with a humble credo of patient care: "I dressed him, God cured him." Paré was born in an era in which physicians considered surgery well beneath their dignity; they left all cutting to the lowly barber-surgeons. At an early age, he served an apprenticeship to a barber in the French provinces, travelling to Paris at age 19 where he became a surgical student at the Hôtel Dieu hospital. After attaining the rank of master barber-surgeon in 1536, he joined the army as a regimental surgeon. He served intermittently in the army for the next 30 years, during which time he developed a flourishing practice and gained fame through his writings and his considerate, democratic treatment...