THE QUALITIES AND CONDUCT OF AN ENGLISH SURGEON IN 1446 - AS DESCRIBED IN A MANUSCRIPT ATTRIBUTED TO MORSTEDE,THOMAS

The year 1996 marks the 550 th Anniversary of an anonymous manuscript which represents one of the earliest surgical works written in English . Generally attributed to Thomas Morstede, Serjeant-Surgeon to King He nry V, the book was for many centuries considered to have been lost an d has escaped detailed examination by the surgeons of today. We presen t a modern translation of its first chapter in which the author outlin es the range of equipment a fifteenth-century surgeon would use, the p ersonal qualities all surgeons should possess, and the manner in which surgical practice should be conducted.