Medical surgical literature has always cited ancient examples of doctors who worked as surgeons to commend war as a teacher. Indeed, important authors had experience of war, from Hieronymus Brunschwig and Ambroise Paré in the 16th century to Thomas Sydenham and Janus Abraham Gehema in the 17th century, and Lorenz Heister, John Pringle, and Jean Dominique Larrey in the 18th. It must b…