author
M. (Charles Gabriel) Le Clerc
b. 1644
A French physician and surgical writer from the late 17th century, he is best remembered for practical medical manuals that helped spread contemporary surgical knowledge to English readers. His work offers a vivid glimpse of how surgery was taught and practiced in the early modern period.
1 Audiobook
The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method.
by M. (Charles Gabriel) Le Clerc
About the author
Charles Gabriel Le Clerc was a French physician born in 1644. Surviving library and public-domain records connect him with medical writing, especially surgical handbooks that were translated and reprinted for English-speaking readers.
He is most closely associated with The Compleat Surgeon, or the Whole Art of Surgery Explain'd in a Most Familiar Method, an English version of his work that presents surgical principles, tumors, ulcers, wounds, fractures, dislocations, venereal disease, and surgical operations in a practical question-and-answer style. A Wikisource author entry also identifies him as physician in ordinary and privy counsellor to the French king.
For modern readers, Le Clerc is interesting not just as an author of medical instruction, but as a window into everyday medicine before modern anesthesia, antisepsis, and laboratory science changed the field. His books reflect a hands-on, methodical approach aimed at making surgical knowledge usable.