"Plastic Surgery: Byways of Medical History, Medieval Practioners", taken from The Canberra Times.

"Plastic Surgery: Byways of Medical History, Medieval Practioners", taken from The Canberra Times.

Ambroise Pare, anatomy, Comprachicos, cosmetic surgery, facial surgery, Fallopius, Firancas of Catania, Gaspara Tagliogozzi, Johann Dieffenbach, medicine, medieval medicine, modern surgery, operation, surgery, Victor Hugo.

This article traces the roots of modern cosmetic surgery to the medieval period. It suggests that the first forms of plastic surgery were performed by a fifteenth-century Sicilian family, the Firancas of Catania. The practice then fell into disuse, the article claims, until 1597 when it was revived by Gaspara Tagliocozzi. However, the alteration of one’s natural, God-given features was condemned by the Church and, for using his surgical skills to attempt this, Tagliocozzi was condemned by his contemporaries Ambroise Pare and the anatomist Fallopius. The article goes on to discuss some other forms of appearance altering surgery, such as that performed by a group of rogue surgeons – the Comprachicos – to surgically disfigure children in the seventeenth century, but suggests that cosmetic surgery did not become popular or widely accepted until the nineteenth century.

Unknown

The National Library of Australia: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1218384

The Canberra Times

14 October 1927

National Library of Australia

newspaper article