The books of Clowes were the leading surgical writings of the Elizabethan age.
They are all in English, sometimes a little prolix, but never obscure.
He had read a great deal, and says that he had made Calmathius 'as it were a day-starre, or christallin cleare looking-glasse.'
Tagalthius, Guido, Vigo, and Quercetanus are his other chief text-books, and he had read seventeen English authors on medicine.
But he trusted to his own observation, and a spirit of inquiry pervades his pages which makes them altogether different from the compilations from authorities which are to be found in the surgical works of his contemporaries Baker and Banester.
In 1579 he published his first book, De Morbo Gallico.
It is mainly a compilation, and his best observations are to be found here and there in his later works.

His Prooved Practise for all young Chirurgians (London, 1591) and Treatise on the Struma (London, 1602) are full of pictures of daily life in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
He was called to a northern clothier whose leg was broken by robbers two miles outside London; to another man whose injury was received by the breaking down of a gallery at a bear-baiting; another patient was a serving-man whose leg had been pierced by an arrow as he walked near the butts; a fifth was one of Sir Francis Drake's sailors who had been shot by a poisoned arrow on the coast of Brazil; a sixth was a merchant wounded on his own ship by a pirate at the mouth of the Thames.
Clowes cared little for critics, but he always speaks with generosity of his professional contemporaries Goodrouse, Banester, Bedon, and George Baker, the surgeons; John Gerard, Rodrigo López, Henry Wotton, Dr. Foster, and Dr. Randall, and Maister Rasis, the French king's surgeon.
He had met all of them in consultation.

He did not conceal that he had secret remedies — 'my unguent,’ 'my balm,’ 'of my collection' — but he never made bargains for cures, and never touted for patients as some surgeons did at that time.
He gives amusing accounts of his encounters with quacks, and prides himself on always acting as became 'a true artist.'
He figures a barber's basin among his instruments of surgery, and says he was a good embalmer of dead bodies, and knew well from practice how to roll cerecloths
Besides ready colloquial English, he shows a wide acquaintance with proverbs, and a fair knowledge of French and of Latin.
His books were all printed in London in black letter and quarto, and are:
De Morbo Gallico, 1579.
Treatise of the French or Spanish Pocks, by John Almenar, 1591, was a new edition.

A Prooved Practise for all young Chirurgians concerning Burnings with Gunpowder, and Woundes made with Gunshot, Sword, Halbard, Pike, Launce, or such other,’ 1591.
A Profitable and Necessary Book of Observations, 1596, was a new edition.

A Right Frutefull and Approved Treatise for the Artificiall Cure of the Struma or Evill, cured by the Kinges and Queenes of England, 1602.

In 1637 reprints of his De Morbo Gallico and Profitable Book of Observations were published.
Letters by him are printed in Banester's Antidotarie (1589), and in Peter Lowe's Surgery (1597).
The books of Clowes were the leading surgical writings of the Elizabethan age. They are all in English, sometimes a little prolix, but never obscure. He had read a great deal, and says that he had made Calmathius 'as it were a day-starre, or christallin cleare looking-glasse.' Tagalthius, Guido, Vigo, and Quercetanus are his other chief text-books, and he had read seventeen English authors on medicine. But he trusted to his own observation, and a spirit of inquiry pervades his pages which makes them altogether different from the compilations from authorities which are to be found in the surgical works of his contemporaries Baker and Banester. In 1579 he published his first book, De Morbo Gallico. It is mainly a compilation, and his best observations are to be found here and there in his later works.
His Prooved Practise for all young Chirurgians (London, 1591) and Treatise on the Struma (London, 1602) are full of pictures of daily life in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was called to a northern clothier whose leg was broken by robbers two miles outside London; to another man whose injury was received by the breaking down of a gallery at a bear-baiting; another patient was a serving-man whose leg had been pierced by an arrow as he walked near the butts; a fifth was one of Sir Francis Drake's sailors who had been shot by a poisoned arrow on the coast of Brazil; a sixth was a merchant wounded on his own ship by a pirate at the mouth of the Thames. Clowes cared little for critics, but he always speaks with generosity of his professional contemporaries Goodrouse, Banester, Bedon, and George Baker, the surgeons; John Gerard, Rodrigo López, Henry Wotton, Dr. Foster, and Dr. Randall, and Maister Rasis, the French king's surgeon. He had met all of them in consultation.
He did not conceal that he had secret remedies — 'my unguent,’ 'my balm,’ 'of my collection' — but he never made bargains for cures, and never touted for patients as some surgeons did at that time. He gives amusing accounts of his encounters with quacks, and prides himself on always acting as became 'a true artist.' He figures a barber's basin among his instruments of surgery, and says he was a good embalmer of dead bodies, and knew well from practice how to roll cerecloths
Besides ready colloquial English, he shows a wide acquaintance with proverbs, and a fair knowledge of French and of Latin. His books were all printed in London in black letter and quarto, and are:
De Morbo Gallico, 1579. Treatise of the French or Spanish Pocks, by John Almenar, 1591, was a new edition.
A Prooved Practise for all young Chirurgians concerning Burnings with Gunpowder, and Woundes made with Gunshot, Sword, Halbard, Pike, Launce, or such other,’ 1591. A Profitable and Necessary Book of Observations, 1596, was a new edition.
A Right Frutefull and Approved Treatise for the Artificiall Cure of the Struma or Evill, cured by the Kinges and Queenes of England, 1602.
In 1637 reprints of his De Morbo Gallico and Profitable Book of Observations were published. Letters by him are printed in Banester's Antidotarie (1589), and in Peter Lowe's Surgery (1597).
William Clowes (surgeon)