term lithotomy, and acquired the sobriquet Lithotomus from the instrument he developed for fragmenting stones too large to pass through a small perineal incision. He used a small hook to keep the stone in one position, and then a blunt instrument to crush it. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (1st century), and the Hindu surgeon Susruta produced early descriptions of bladder stone treatment using perineal lithotomy. Paulus Aegineta 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician his Medical Compendium in Seven Books. This work contained a summary of medical knowledge and was unrivaled in its accuracy and completeness. Paulus' description of lithotomy closely follows that of Celsus. Albucasis in the tenth century AD describes a procedure different from previous ones, using an incision to the side of the midline, and with a knife that is "sharp on two sides" (Spinks and Lewis say it is difficult to reconcile the drawing of the knife to the procedure). Albucasis also adds using forceps instead of the scoop and chisel of Ammonius to break up the stone. Albucasis also uses a "drill" for stones impacted in the urethra, a technique not recorded earlier. Techniques described as similar to Albucasis' were seen for the next eight hundred years. Middle Ages to modern times Little changed in technique or instruments throughout the Middle Ages. Most lithotomists were commercial travellers, conducting procedures in places able to be attended by onlookers. In the 16th century, Laurent Colot and Pierre Franco (1505–1578) were pioneers in the suprapubic lithotomy method, in which an incision is made above the bladder. Frère Jacques Beaulieu (also known as Frère Jacques Baulot) developed an operation that went in laterally to remove the bladder stones in the late 16th century. Beaulieu was a travelling lithotomist and a Dominican Friar, with scant knowledge of anatomy. Beaulieu performed the procedure frequently in France into the late 16th century. A possible connection between the French nursery rhyme Frère Jacques and Frère Jacques Beaulieu, as claimed by Irvine Loudon and many others, was recently explored without finding any evidence for a connection. A less invasive technique was described by Ottoman surgeons Sabuncuoğlu Serafettin and Ahi Ahmed Celebi in the sixteenth century, involving accessing the bladder through the urethra, and then washing it with fluid. Lithotomy was successfully performed by some practitioners in the 17th century, for example Johann Andreas Eisenbarth (1663–1727). Other important names in its historical development were Jean Zuléma Amussat (1796–1856), Auguste