Venereal disease has always been the scourge of armies, and it was no different in Par矇's time. Without antibiotics or effective prophylaxis, the only treatment was cautery, burning away the infected or scarred tissue with hot irons. This hair-raising illustration of various cautery tools, complete with a miniature fire, may have served two purposes: illustrating useful tool designs, and warning the unwary about what lay in store. The 1585 edition of Par矇's Oeuvres (Collected Works) represents the final summary of his life's work. It has over twelve hundred folio pages, with nearly 400 illustrations drawing upon a lifetime of practice. Four editions of the Oeuvres were published during his lifetime, and this is the last and the most complete. Often his descriptions of difficult cases end with the same simple sentence, "I treated him, but God cured him." Ambroise Par矇 (1510 - December 20, 1590) was a French surgeon, anatomist, inventor and one of the fathers of surgery and modern forensic pathology.