If there's one thing you've come to expect from our history podcast it's that we look at the very bluntest edge technology available. And where else to look other than the operating theatre? Join Jess and Philippa as they look at two surgeons: one, the paragon of his age just before the advent of anaesthesia; the other, a French surgeon who got up close and personal with the dark side of the Sun King.  Sources:Fitzharris, L. (2017) The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. New York: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Porter, R. (2004) Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company.Snow, S. (2006) Operations Without Pain: The Practice and Science of Anaesthesia in Victorian Britain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Van de Laar, A. (2018) Under the Knife: A History of Surgery in 28 Remarkable Operations. New York: St. Martin's Press.