Picture today, a surgical scene:
sterile room, bright lights, 
instruments clean.
Patients today know they'll be safe. 
But lo, long ago, this was not such the case.
What once was called "surgery" 
was nothing of sort,
and began when such things 
were of desperate resort.
From the new Stone Age, 
4500 BC,
where holes drilled in skulls 
were the best you would see.
With these crude efforts 
and noble intentions,
only turpentine and vinegar 
might stave off infections.
And for these poor patients,
through their howls and their groans,
nothing they're offered 
eased the slicing of bone.
Flash-forward some years 
to the ancient Egyptians,
learning of organs 
through mummifications.
'Twas known that honey 
kept infection at bay --
after their saws and forceps 
had had their way.
The Greeks also made tools 
for their own resections,
and found that wine 
helped ward off infections.
Gladiators thrived 
with Galen around,
who studied the body,
slicing on beasts that he'd found.
Clearly, surgery before anesthesia 
was simply barbaric,
excruciating pain 
making patients hysteric.
But this was a time
to be awake was thought key,
to come out alive 
of your surgery.
In India, years later, 
'cross all the land,
nose upon nose 
was sliced off by hand.
As punishment, yes 
-- which was the worst --
the loss or the cure: 
nose stitched back with force?
Through the Middle Ages, 
this agony of pain
continued, 
leaving the needy writhing in vain.
As concoctions of herbs 
attempted to mask
the unspeakable agony 
of resolute surgeons' tasks.
Here soon emerged 
a brand-new vocation:
barber-surgeons pulled teeth 
and did amputations.
Inside of their shops, 
your wounds he'd repair,
and for a spare shilling 
he'd trim up your hair.
At this time, in large cities, 
emerged a disease
that would rot off your face 
while spreading with ease.
Quite the scandal, 
but surgeons and skin grafts could save you in weeks,
though, by stitching your arm -- 
to the side of your cheek.
But here, education 
humbly begins
to improve how surgeons 
could heal their kin.
Those students were faced with
dubious terms
forced to steal cadavers 
to dissect and to learn.
Finally, from darkness, 
a turn that advances
with the arrival of chloroform, 
ether and gases.
Which tamed the edge 
of all of this pain,
though significant risks 
of dying remained.
But then new technologies 
wrought realizations,
like how gloves made of rubber 
could aid sterilization.
And through a germ theory, 
new insights arrived.
Why, simply washing one's hands 
could help patients survive!
So, by the mid-1900s, 
surgery was safe,
antibiotics 
having found their true place.
Amongst better schooling 
and doctors who shared
the skills, yes to heal, 
but also to care.
Now the term "healthcare" 
means thousands of tasks --
thousands of roles 
built on the past.
And with esteemed institutions 
teaching what's right,
the history of surgery's future --
is bright.
