Exactly 200 years ago, Joseph Constantine Carpue performed the first rhinoplasty operation or nose job in Britain.
But plastic surgery had already been around for a while.
In India in the sixth century BC, a surgeon named Sushrata quite literally wrote the book on plastic surgery, the Sushruta-samhita. It remained required reading for budding cosmetic surgeons for centuries on the subcontinent and in the Arab world.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Carpue had read an article in a magazine describing how Indian soldiers were undergoing operations to repair facial disfigurements, and he studied the techniques extensively.
In 1799, he was appointed a surgeon at the Duke of York Hospital in Chelsea. One day, a military officer walked in who had lost his nose due to excessive inhalation of mercury (in those days, the highly toxic substance otherwise known as quicksilver was used to treat a variety of diseases).
On 23 October 1814, Carpue cut a piece of skin from the man's forehead and fashioned it into a nose, which he then grafted on to the face. For several days, the patient lay immobile with his head swaddled in bandages.
While quite possibly not up to the standards of today's Harley Street, the operation was declared a resounding success. The man's body had accepted the new nose as its own.
Carpue repeated the procedure on another patient and wrote them both up in the imaginatively titled An account of two successful operations for restoring a lost nose from the integument of the forehead.
From then on, plastic surgery continued to be developed in Europe and America, down to the present day making more than a few cosmetic surgeons extremely wealthy along the way.
-
31 August 1957: the Federation of Malaya declares independence from the UKFeatures On this day in 1957, after ten years of preparation, the Federation of Malaya became an independent nation.
-
13 April 1960: the first satellite navigation system is launchedFeatures On this day in 1960, Nasa sent the Transit 1B satellite into orbit to provide positioning for the US Navy’s fleet of Polaris ballistic missile submarines.
-
9 April 1838: National Gallery opens in Trafalgar Square
Features On this day in 1838, William Wilkins’ new National Gallery building in Trafalgar Square opened to the public.
-
3 March 1962: British Antarctic Territory is created
Features On this day in 1962, Britain formed the British Antarctic Territory administered from the Falkland Islands.
-
10 March 2000: the dotcom bubble peaks
Features Tech mania fanned by the dawning of the internet age inflated the dotcom bubble to maximum extent, on this day in 2000.
-
9 March 1776: Adam Smith publishes 'The Wealth of Nations'
Features On this day in 1776, Adam Smith, the “father of modern economics”, published his hugely influential book The Wealth of Nations.
-
8 March 1817: the New York Stock Exchange is formed
Features On this day in 1817, a group of brokers moved out of a New York coffee house to form what would become the biggest stock exchange in the world.
-
7 March 1969: Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Victoria Line
Features On this day in 1969, Queen Elizabeth II took only her second trip on the tube to officially open the underground’s newest line – the Victoria Line.
