Medieval surgery book. Title page from Jerome of Brunswick's (1450?-1512) The noble experyence of the vertuous handy warke of surgeri. The page features two views of a patient being trephined, the practice of sawing holes in the skull. Clearly visible is the instrument, the trephine, used to perform this operation. This book was the first on the practice of surgery to be published (1525) in English. Medieval doctors prescribed surgery, but thought it too demeaning to actually perform. Surgery was performed by a lower caste of medical practitioners. These were often butchers who had no training other than serving an apprenticeship with another surgeon.