Jean de Baseilhac (1703-1781)

Better known as Frère Côme, Baseilhac was descended from a family of surgeons. He studied under his uncle in Lyons and later in Paris. In 1729 Baseilhac took holy orders and decided to devote his life to the care of the poor. He devised the lithotome caché in which the cutting blade disappeared into a groove in the blunt segment of the gorget.

The records left by the lithotomist also included a description of suprapubic lithotomy published in 1779: “Nouvelle méthode d’extraire la pière par dessus le pubis”.