A day like this

3 May 1650 JOHN EVELYN writes in his diary: 'At the Hospital of the Charitie, I saw the operation of Lithotomie namely cut of the stone: There was one person of 40 years old had a stone taken out of him, bigger than a turkys Egg: The manner thus: The sick creature was strip'd to his shirt and bound armes and thighs to a high Chaire, 2 man holding his shoulders fast down: then the Chirurgion with a crooked Instrument prob'd til he hit on the stone, then he made an incision thro the Scrotum about an Inch in length and put in his forefingers to get the stone as neere as he could, then with another instrument like a Cranes neck he pull'd it out with incredible torture to the Patient. The effusion of blood is greate. The danger is feavor, and gangreene, some Wounds never closing. The stone pull'd forth in washed, then put into a paper and writen on, which is also entered in a booke, with the name of the person, shape, weight etc of the stone, Day of the month and operator.'