Ambroise Pare. Portrait of the French surgeon Ambroise Pare (1510-1590). Pare, who worked in the army as a barber-surgeon, is considered to be the father of modern surgery. In those days sword and gun wounds were treated with boiling oil and bleeding was often stopped by cauterization. During the 1536 siege of Turin, Italy, Pare used egg yolk, rose oil and turpentine to dress wounds as no boiling oil was available. This treatment proved more successful, and less painful, than boiling oil. Pare pioneered the use of ligature (tying off blood vessels) in amputations, created artificial limbs and improved obstetrical methods. Artwork taken from an 1833/37 book.