Amputation, Lorenz Heister, 1718. Lorenz Heister (1683-1758) was a German anatomist, surgeon and botanist whose best-known work is Chirurgie, a book on surgery originally published in 1718, from which this 1739 illustration derives. He coined the word "tracheotomy." He is credited with being the first physician to perform a post-mortem section of appendicitis. Colorized.