Chirurgery

Use in the book

Burton adopts a threefold division of ordinary treatment into regimen, pharmacy and surgery. The separate surgical member begins with patient, quantity and timing restrictions for bloodletting; it continues through opening a vein, cupping and leeches to burning, boring, lancing and deliberately maintained outlets. These procedures are understood through the historical theories of evacuation and diversion. In the cupping paragraph, Fernel’s reported speed of action accompanies the proposed diversion of humours, aches and wind. The possibility of cupping without incisions remains important in the later account of relieving abdominal wind. These are descriptions of historical treatments and their alleged effects, not present-day therapeutic instructions.

The practitioner and the practice also enter other arguments. Surgeons appear as the physician’s “hangmen” in the attack on medical ignorance, followed by a Latin epigram contrasting drugs with the surgeon’s hand. Burton subsequently says that he esteems medicine and can distinguish abuse from use. His praise of his mother’s surgical skill is correspondingly concrete: sore eyes, aches and successful treatment of poor people without other help. Yet praise for that skill does not entail immediate acceptance of every remedy: he first regards her spider amulet as absurd, then changes his opinion after reading authorities and observing apparent success in some people.

In the account of despair, surgery’s salve for every sore becomes a foil for the anguish of conscience. The question about what surgery can relieve is part of that heightened description. The subsequent treatment of despair explicitly makes medicine and counsel cooperate for the most part, while acknowledging reported exceptions.

The spelling Chyrurgian also names the practitioner. A supposedly simple surgeon can perform extraordinary cures through the patient’s confidence; another catalogue makes a surgeon “fulsome,” a hostile social stereotype among many occupations, rather than a definition of the trade. Later, becoming a good surgeon after initially shrinking from fresh wounds illustrates habituation. Burton’s continuation allows avoidance when such habituation cannot be achieved.

Related entries

Cautery

Issue

Impostume

Bile and boil

Friction and embrocation

Epithemes

Phlebotomy

Places to read

1. Subsection 2. The Power of Imagination · paragraphs 28–30The simple surgeon and the patient’s confidence.
2. Subsection 10. Discontents, Cares, Miseries and the Like as Causes · paragraphs 4–6The surgeon within a catalogue of occupational disparagement.
3. Subsection 3. Concerning Medicine · paragraphs 8–9The three branches of treatment and Burton’s adopted order.
4. Subsection 2 Help From Friends Through Counsel and Comfort Gentle and Harsh… · paragraphs 12–14Acquired tolerance of wounds, followed by the alternative of avoidance.
5. Member 1 Subsection 1 Medical Treatment by Medicines · paragraphs 14–25Satirical practitioners, the manual/drug contrast, and the return to medicine’s legitimate use.
6. Member 3 Surgical Remedies · paragraphs 1–10The surgical heading and its restricted, varied repertoire; scarification at Member 3 Surgical Remedies · paragraph 7.
7. Subsection 5 Alteratives and Cordials That Strengthen the Body, Disperse The… · paragraphs 30–32Dorothy Burton’s practical skill and the separate history of an amulet’s credibility.
8. Subsection 2 Corrective Medicines to Expel Wind. Against Constipation, and So On · paragraphs 51–54Patient-dependent cautions and cupping without scarification for wind.
9. Symptoms of Despair: Fear, Sorrow, Suspicion, Anxiety, Horror of Conscience… · paragraphs 24–27Surgery in the rhetoric of despair.
10. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 9–13The later combination of medical and consolatory care.

In this edition

“Chirurgicall remedies” becomes “Surgical remedies”, while “with or without scarification” is retained exactly. The familiar surgical adjective clarifies the branch; the retained procedural term requires its own definition. “Chirurgeons and Apothecaries especially” becomes “especially surgeons and apothecaries”, with the adverb moved but its scope preserved. “excellent skill in Chirurgery” is rendered as “excellent skill in surgery”; the surrounding examples show why surgery should not be narrowed to a present-day specialty. The salve comparison likewise retains surgery, rather than making it a distinct spiritual procedure.

chirurgeon · Chirurgeons

Printed “Chirurgeons” (English; lemma).

A surgeon, a practitioner of manual treatment.

Here: Surgeons and apothecaries are called the physician’s executioners in a polemical attack on ignorance.

Context: Burton voices a satirical charge and then expressly distinguishes medicine’s abuse from its use at the passage.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Chirurgeons and Apothecaries especially

Modern rendering: especially surgeons and apothecaries

Word and construction: Chirurgeons supplies surgeons; especially is redistributed to the start of the phrase.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgeon · Chyrurgian · local use 1

Printed “Chyrurgian” (English; lemma).

A surgeon, a practitioner of manual treatment.

Here: The unlearned practitioner may allegedly outperform a learned physician because the patient trusts him.

Context: The argument attributes success to confidence through Nymannus and other authorities; it does not deny all value to learning.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a silly Chyrurgian

Modern rendering: a simple surgeon

Word and construction: Chyrurgian supplies surgeon; silly contributes simple or unlearned, not a modern insult.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgeon · Chyrurgian · local use 2

Printed “Chyrurgian” (English; lemma).

A surgeon, a practitioner of manual treatment.

Here: Surgeon is one profession mocked in a catalogue denying universal satisfaction in any calling.

Context: Fulsome is the derisive stereotype, not part of the noun’s definition.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: A Chyrurgian, fulsome

Modern rendering: a surgeon, disgusting

Word and construction: The noun is surgeon; the separate adjective fulsome is rendered disgusting.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgeon · Chyrurgians

Printed “Chyrurgians” (English; lemma).

A surgeon, a practitioner of manual treatment.

Here: People first unable to bear wounds become good surgeons, illustrating acquired tolerance.

Context: Burton’s habituation analogy is followed by permission to avoid objects when habituation fails.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: good Chyrurgians

Modern rendering: good surgeons

Word and construction: The occupational noun and favourable adjective are retained; the plural is an inflection of the singular citation lemma.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgery · Chirurgery · local use 1

Printed “Chirurgery” (English; lemma).

Surgery; the manual branch of medical treatment.

Here: The third branch in the method Burton adopts, after regimen and pharmacy.

Context: Burton announces an order attributed to Wecker, Crato, Guianerius and others.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Diet or Living, Apothecary, Chirurgery

Modern rendering: diet or manner of living, pharmacy, and surgery

Word and construction: Chirurgery contributes surgery to the three-part list; the other terms remain separate components.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgery · Chirurgery · local use 2

Printed “Chirurgery” (English; lemma).

Practical surgical treatment of wounds and bodily ailments.

Here: Burton praises his mother’s skill in treating sore eyes, aches and poor patients; the scope is broader than modern operative specialization.

Context: Burton reports Dorothy Burton’s experience and reputation, but immediately distinguishes his initial disbelief in her spider amulet.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: excellent skill in Chirurgery

Modern rendering: excellent skill in surgery

Word and construction: The direct surgery equivalent retains the noun’s broad historical scope.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgery · Chirurgery · local use 3

Printed “Chirurgery” (English; lemma).

Surgery, invoked as a bodily art of healing.

Here: A salve for a sore becomes the contrast for the apparently unrelievable pain of conscience.

Context: A rhetorical question in the symptoms of despair, qualified by the later insistence that medicine and counsel ordinarily cooperate.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: to every sore, Chirurgery will provide a salve

Modern rendering: for every wound, surgery will provide a salve

Word and construction: Chirurgery contributes surgery; the surrounding claim gives its rhetorical reach.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

chirurgical

Printed “Chirurgicall” (English; lemma).

Surgical; belonging to treatment by manual procedures.

Here: Names the separate surgical member, whose contents include bloodletting, cupping, leeches, cauteries and maintained outlets.

Context: Burton’s structural heading, not a claim that each procedure suits every patient.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Chirurgicall remedies

Modern rendering: Surgical remedies

Word and construction: The adjective becomes surgical; remedies remains the noun.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

scarification · local use 1

Printed “scarification” (English; lemma).

The making of small incisions in the skin.

Here: Distinguishes cupping accompanied by skin incision from cupping without it.

Context: Burton reports Fernel’s claim of very rapid action and describes the intended diversion of humours, aches and wind.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: with or without scarification

Word and construction: The term and the alternative with or without are retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

scarification · local use 2

Printed “scarification” (English; lemma).

The making of small incisions in the skin.

Here: Its explicit absence distinguishes dry cupping for wind from procedures that open the skin.

Context: Fernel, Mercatus and Claudinus are cited for alleged rapid relief; enchantment is a comparison for speed.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: without scarification

Word and construction: The negative qualification is retained unchanged.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.