An Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose

On its publication An Account of Two Successful Operations for Restoring a Lost Nose (1816) by Joseph Carpue, was the most important work on reconstructive surgery since Gasparo Tagliacozzi, the Sixteenth Century Italian surgeon. Carpue's work is considered to represent the beginnings of modern plastic surgery, the first time for almost 200 years that this type of surgery had been examined in such detail. The widespread religious condemnation of Tagliacozzi's work had meant that methods of plastic surgery ceased to be openly researched for many years. Carpue's account describes procedures on two British Army officers using 'Hindu' rhinoplasty, which included an introduction on the history of both 'Hindu' and 'Taliacotian' methods.