Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: surgical practice

  • James Syme, the Napoleon of surgery (1799–1870)

    James Syme was born in Edinburgh in the year when Napoleon became First Consul, and in later years came to be called the Napoleon or Wellington of surgery.1-6 As a young man he had an interest in chemistry and at age eighteen developed a method of making textiles impermeable to water by impregnating them with…