| Physical description |
1 drawing : pen and grey ink and grey wash within brown ink framing lines ; sheet 9.9 x 12.8 cm. |
| Summary |
The operator excises the breast with the "tenaculum helvetianum", presumably to remove breast cancer. His assistant has a case of lancets etc. attached to his belt. A set of cautery irons is smouldering on a stand on the left. The patient is seated, held by two men: she appears to be fainting. On the right, a man in a tall hat points towards her: he is possibly meant to be a physician |
|
The instrument used by the operator is the "tenaculum helvetianum" (tenette helvétienne), as described by Jean-Adrien Helvetius in Traité des pertes de sang .. accompagné de sa lettre sur la nature et guérison du cancer, Paris 1697, pp. 153-155 and folding plate f.p. 153; L. Heister, Institutiones chirurgicae, Amsterdam 1739, vol. 2, pp. 740-741 and tab. XXIII fig. 1. A similar instrument is used by Saint Agatha's torturer in an earlier (ca. 1600?) engraving by Philips Galle |
| Cite as |
Wellcome Library no. 528470i |
| Note |
Possibly drawn for reproduction in an emblem book, to illustrate efficacious action. A similar scene (but a different composition, by Romein de Hooghe) is included in 'Het voorhof der ziele' by Frans van Hoogstraten (Rotterdam 1668), p. 134, to illustrate the motto "Non multis verbis opus est, sed efficacibus" (Seneca, Epistulae 38) |
| Topic-LCSH |
Breast -- Cancer
|
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Operations, Surgical.
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Cautery.
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Cancer -- Surgery.
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Mastectomy.
|
| Copy photo no. |
L 31627 |
| System no. |
.b15284700
|
| Record no. |
528470i |
|
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