Nélaton (1807–1873), Henry Thompson (1820–1904) and William Cheselden (1688–1752). The latter invented a technique for lateral vesical stone lithotomy in 1727, whereupon he was said to perform the operation in about one minute (an important feat before anesthesia). French composer Marin Marais wrote "Tableau de l'opération de la taille" ("tableau of a Lithotomy"), a musical description of the operation, in 1725. In England, William Thornhill performed his first suprapubic operation on a boy privately on 3 February 1722 (O.S.; 14 February 1723 N.S.) The records of his work, published by his colleague, John Middleton, M.D., prove that his experience in the operation and his success were greater than any contemporary English surgeon could show. Special surgical instruments were designed for lithotomy, consisting of dilators of the canal, forceps and tweezers, lithotomes (stone cutters) and cystotomes (bladder cutters), urethrotomes (for incisions of the urethra) and conductors (grooved probes used as guides for stone extraction). The patient is placed in a special position on a lithotomy operating table, called the lithotomy position (which retains this name to the present day, when the same position is used for other unrelated medical procedures). Move to less invasive procedures Transurethral lithotripsy, which was much simpler and with lower morbidity, complication and mortality rates, was invented by French surgeon Jean Civiale (1792–1867) and largely substituted for surgical lithotomy, unless the crushing of calculi was difficult or impossible. Notes External links Lithotomy. Institute and Museum of the History of Science, Florence, Italy. History of surgery Urologic surgery Surgical removal procedures Accessory digestive gland surgery