Felix Würtz

Felix Würtz was a surgeon of the 16th century who was born in Zurich and lived and practised in Zurich and Strasbourg. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain: he was probably born between about 1500 and 1510 and died between about 1590 and 1596. He had no academic studies but was apprenticed to a surgeon at fourteen, worked as a barber and probably as a field surgeon, and from 1536 belonged to the guild of barbers in Zurich. He was a friend of the naturalist Conrad Gesner. His main work, Praktika der Wundartzney, appeared in Basel in 1563 and gave his opinions on wound treatment, criticised several medical traditions, questioned the surgical suture and stressed the importance of the surgeon's own practical experience. His Kinderbüchlein, printed after his death in 1612, is an important contribution to pediatrics and openly criticised the hard swaddling of babies.