My great grandfather ten times back was William Clowes, a bold surgeon who was also a writer.
He published his first book on syphilis in 1579. He later put out 'A prooued practise for all young chirurgians, concerning burnings with gunpowder, and woundes made with gunshot, sword, halbard, pike, launce, or such other' in 1591, and 'A right frutefull and approoued treatise, for the artificiall cure of that malady called in Latin Struma, and in English, the evill, cured by kinges and queenes of England: Very necessary for all young practizers of chyrurgery' in 1602.
He had a pretty action-packed life as a war surgeon treating soldiers injured with poisoned arrows, looking after burns with salt and onion juice, and pulling swords out of people. He describes sailors with horrible scurvy 'their breath of a filthy savor', aiding a man who fell out of the gallery at at bear-baiting fight and needing a strong man to hold someone down for amputation of the legs.
Thankfully, he has some good reviews. The National Dictionary of Biography said of his writing: 'The books of Clowes are the best surgical writings of the Elizabethan age. They are all in English, and his style is easy and forcible, sometimes a little prolix, but never obscure.' Norman Moore remarked, 'he is as full of proverbs as Sancho Panza and has them for all occasions'.
Medical writing runs in the family!
