# First Caesarian Section **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 6, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673 "2003-11-06T07:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kiwiboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kiwiboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiwiboy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/1 "2003-11-06T07:59:44Z")
Just a minor commment on Cecil’s old column on [Caesarian Sections](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_289.html) . Since 1976 the name of the skilful surgeon who performed a successful C-seciton has now been revealed to be [Jacob Nufer](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/cesarean_2.html) who successfully performed the operation on his wife in 1500. What remains unknown is how many geldings someone would have to perform to make a living as a pig gelder remains unanswered… ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/2 "2003-11-06T09:17:01Z")
Sorry about this hijack. From **kiwiboy’s** link: > [@](#): > > Perhaps the first written record we have of a mother and baby surviving a cesarean section comes from Switzerland in 1500 when **a sow gelder** , Jacob Nufer, performed the operation on his wife. Bolding mine. This man gelded _sows_? Or is the meaning of geld a little broader than “cutting off the testicles”? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/3 "2003-11-06T13:48:21Z")
Maybe he plated sows with gold. Oh, wait, that would be sow gilder. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/4 "2003-11-06T15:34:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kiwiboy \* > \*\*Just a minor commment on Cecil’s old column on [Caesarian Sections](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_289.html) . > > Since 1976 the name of the skilful surgeon who performed a successful C-seciton has now been revealed to be [Jacob Nufer](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/cesarean_2.html) who successfully performed the operation on his wife in 1500. > > What remains unknown is how many geldings someone would have to perform to make a living as a pig gelder remains unanswered… \*\* Just in case someone fails to follow the link and read the text carefully: > [@](#): > > Since this story was not recorded until 82 years later historians question its accuracy. Similar skepticism might be applied to other early reports of abdominal delivery þ those performed by women on themselves and births resulting from attacks by horned livestock, during which the peritoneal cavity was ripped open. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/5 "2003-11-07T02:37:13Z")
I thought guilders were Dutch, not Swiss? ---
**Author:** ![kiwiboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kiwiboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiwiboy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/6 "2003-11-07T07:39:41Z")
Leaving aside the question as to whether Jacobeb performed the operation, I’m not sure how to answer \*\*Ice Wolf’s \*\* sow gelding query. Perhaps it’s a typo on thier page ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/7 "2003-11-07T16:55:28Z")
Maybe if he was planting gold, instead of plating it, he could be a gold sower. And if we’re looking for other references to surgical birth, I know that this is far after the Talmud, but we mustn’t forget that one of Shakespear’s characters was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d (not saying whom in case anyone here doesn’t know that play). Unfortunately the Bard doesn’t tell us whether the lady in question survived. ---
**Author:** ![fool4jesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b5a626/32.png) [@fool4jesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fool4jesus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-caesarian-section/211673/8 "2003-11-07T17:45:45Z")
From [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com): \Geld, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gelded or Gelt (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Gelding.] [Icel. gelda to castrate; akin to Dan. gilde, Sw. g["a]lla, and cf. AS. gilte a young sow, OHG. galt dry, not giving milk, G. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ gelt, Goth. gilpa siclke.] 1. To castrate; to emasculate. 1. To deprive of anything essential. Bereft and gelded of his patrimony. --Shak. 1. To deprive of anything exceptionable; as, to geld a book, or a story; to expurgate. [Obs.] --Dryden. Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.