The life and time of Guillaume Dupuytren

Guillaume Dupuytren's good fortune was the time of his birth. He was a product of revolutionary change in France, and without it he would never have become a surgeon. From south central France he came to Paris to become a surgeon and reached his goal, literally, "on a crust of bread". Dupuytren is remembered principally for the hand condition which bears his name; his other numerous and more-important contributions have been ignored. Never happy outside the operating room--or perhaps inside it either, due to his mania for perfection--this arrogant master surgeon constantly clashed with his colleagues, staff and the few friends he had. When he died at the age of 57 years, he had advanced surgery on many frontiers.