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1898: The Doyen of Surgical Film
A keen photographer for much of his life, renowned surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen, after seeing a Lumière show, was quick to see the uses to which film could be put in his profession. Doyen approached Lumière cameraman Clément-Maurice and Ambroise-François Parnaland with the proposal of filming some of his surgical operations for educational purposes. Both men agreed and, after they had modified a cinématographe in order to cope with the extended filming time required, they made a trial film of Dr. Doyen carrying out a craniectomy in his operating theatre on Avenue d'Iéna in 1897. The two technicians originally recommended that Doyen carry out the operation in the open-air in order to get the best possible lighting conditions, and to carry out the operation on a cadaver, but the good doctor refused.
Early in 1898, another two operations were filmed successfully, and Doyen presented his films (of a craniectomy and a hysterectomy) to the British Medical Society in Edinburgh on the 28th July. The films were praised by Doyen's British colleagues, but the French medical profession was not so impressed and shunned the eminent surgeon. A paper Doyen was due to deliver to the Medical Academy was turned down, and he was refused permission to project his films by the Surgical Congress. [ADD]
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