Today, clockwork and surgery. The University of Houston's
College of Engineering presents this series about the machines
that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
Cutting into the human body is terrifying business. Yet our
neolithic forbears did brain surgery. Indian surgeons operated
on cataracts 2000 years ago. And the cesarean section, as its
name suggests, goes back at least to ancient Rome. But early
surgery was limited by pain and infection, and neither could be
helped until the mid 19th century gave us anesthetics Still, the
clockwork rationalism of the 18th century triggered a new view
of surgery. Just as a clock could be taken apart and repaired,
so too might the human body. The science of anatomy was scarcely
two centuries old, but now physicians and surgeons tore into the
body with renewed purpose. The broken spring, the worn gear,
should be fixable. Anatomy leapt forward as a science; and all
kinds of new operations were attempted. Let's look at one: Peter
Camper, born in 1722