Military surgery

“Most military surgeons at the turn of the eighteenth century had no yet mastered ligature or the tourniquet; thus, amputation, the most common surgical procedure performed on the wounded, remained a traumatic and risky business. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, both ligature and tourniquet applications were normal practice, as was the use of the hemostat and surgical clip. Cautery was finally banished from the surgeon’s kit” (Gabriel, 132).