The Sun King's anal fistula.

In 1808 the French medical faculty was re-established, with teaching of both clinical medicine and surgery. In 1686, Louis XIV of France (1638 – 1715) – The Sun King – developed a perianal abscess that after a series of failed treatment attempts, including with the use of a red-hot iron, developed into an anal fistula. The doctors were powerless, and after several months of cogitation the king underwent surgery that proved successful. At the time, surgeons were subordinate to physicians, but with the king’s help their working conditions improved and their prestige rose. After persistent efforts by later outstanding French surgeons and with royal support, the Académie Royale de Chirurgie (the Royal Academy of Surgery) was established in 1731. Medical training in France was later reorganised, with the establishment of institutions that merged training in internal medicine and surgery.