Par矇 includes a very practical treatise on the preparation of various medicines. He is impressed with the healing powers of such aromatic spices as cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and he devotes a chapter on how to distill the essence of spices and herbs to concentrate their power. These are alembics, the forerunner of laboratory retorts, used for gentle boiling and then condensing the vapors of the material at hand. A water bath is used to keep the heat gentle and uniform. 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.