Barber-surgeon

“ The origin of the barbers' pole is to be traced to the period when the barbers were also surgeons, and practiced bleeding. To assist this operation, it being necessary for the patient to grasp a staff, a stick or a pole was always kept by the barber-surgeon, together with the fillet or bandage he used for tying the patient's arm. When the pole was not in use, the tape was tied to it, that they might be both together when wanted. ”

“ The Barber Surgeons.
Besides the comparatively modern “dressers,” there is another body of men in Kabul who practise the noble art of surgery, namely, the “barbers.” The line they specially take up is that of bleeding and tooth drawing. They have very rough forceps for the latter operation, and when, as not infrequently happened, they snapped the crown of a tooth off instead of extracting it, they passed the patient on to me. It is annoying for a surgeon to have to extract broken but firmly-fixed fangs from an injured and bleeding jaw. It is not a pretty operation at all. ”

“ An edict was issued by Louis the Twelfth in 1613 to the effect that the two corporations (the surgeons and the barbers) should be fused into a single organization; and, even before this, it had become customary to employ the words “surgeon” and “barber” as synonymous terms. Finally, in the years 1644, 1645 and 1656, further agreements were entered into by the two bodies. After the founding of the Academy of Surgery in 1731 nothing further is heard of barber-surgeons. ”

“ Leaving the curé’s household service, Paré apprenticed himself to a barber-surgeon named Vialot, under whom he learnt to let blood, draw teeth, and perform the minor operations. After four years’ experience of this kind, he went to Paris to study at the school of anatomy and surgery, meanwhile maintaining himself by his trade of a barber. ”

“ The Barber’s and Surgeon’s Pole.—The peculiar pole made use of by barbers as a sign seems to have been medical in origin. For a long time the barber performed all the duties of the surgeon. It was in the year 1461 that, on petition, King Edward IV granted “the freemen of the Mystery of Barbers of the city of London, using the mystery or faculty of surgery,” “the mystery,” which constituted the beginning of the present Royal College of Surgeons of England. [516] It was not, however, until the middle of the eighteenth century (1745) that each began to limit his functions. ”

“ In 1743 surgery students began to dissect corpses with their own hands to better learn anatomy. In 1744 the Company of Surgeons was separated out of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers were proscribed from performing surgery and had to have a separate corporation from the surgeons because of the ignorance and unskillfulness of barbers healing wounds, blows, and hurts e.g. by blood letting and drawing of teeth. There was a Surgeon's Hall, officers chosen by the surgeons, and bylaws. The surgeons were required to examine candidates for the position of surgeon in the king's army and navy. ”

“ Take the Middle Ages now—the period when a barber and a surgeon were one and the same. If a man made a failure as a barber he turned his talents to surgery. Surgeons in those times were a husky breed. ”

“ Reverting now from individuals to the Company, we find that the Barbers existed as a Trade Guild, but unincorporated certainly from the year 1308, and that they were at first ruled by one Master, and later on (in 1376) by two Masters, appointed annually. This Company of Barbers was composed of two classes of Members—viz., those who practised Barbery proper (perhaps including phlebotomy and tooth drawing) , and those who practised Surgery, and who were, for distinction sake, called Barber-Surgeons (in the City books they are spoken of as “Barbers exercising the faculty of Surgery”) . ”

“ Moreover there persist to-day in Europe many relics of the old customs, and the barber surgeon is still a common figure in Germany, and particularly in Russia, where the really educated surgeons are still too few for a vast and widespread population. It must be remembered also that the Church gradually imbued men's minds with a horror of a dead body, and of the profanation which followed having anything to do with it, and surrounded the study of anatomy with every possible obstacle and obloquy ”

“ But little is known of Richard Ferris, though he was doubtless a man of repute, as Gale speaks approvingly of him, and he held the office of Serjeant-Surgeon in Queen Elizabeth’s time; his portrait is preserved by Holbein in our great picture, and Henry VIII, by his will, bequeathed him 100 marks. He was twice Master of the Barber-Surgeons, viz., in 1551 and 1562. ”

“ As already said, the Clergy very frequently employed the Barbers as their assistants, and committed to them the preparation of the medicated baths and the performance of sundry minor surgical operations. No doubt the Edict of Tours was hailed with joy by the Barbers, who thus found a lucrative practice thrown in their way, and seized the opportunity of practising as Surgeons “on their own account,” calling themselves Barber-Surgeons, and practising both Barbery and Surgery. ”

“ Then at the request of “our beloved, honest and free men of the said Mystery of Barbers,” the King grants to them, to be one body perpetual, etc., that two of the chief men of the Company (no doubt the two then existing Masters “exercising the faculty of Surgery”) may with twelve or at least eight other skilled Barber-Surgeons, elect two Masters annually: this provision in itself is singular, as it would seem to imply that the body then incorporated was to be ruled by two Masters only ”

“ But the care of his wound was committed to an ignorant barber surgeon, who lived near the house; the best shift that could then be made, at a time when, it may be easily fupposed, persons of ability in their profession had their hands full of employment. ”

“ In Prussia they were only allowed to treat wounds and chronic diseases, and so it came about that by the beginning of the eighteenth century a really conscientious and efficient barber surgeon was supposed to have served an apprenticeship in large hospitals, to have witnessed the work of noted surgeons and to have served in the Army or Navy. ”

“ With the looseness of morals and the laxity of our laws, one of these fellows “can make a doctor as quick as a tinker can make a tin kettle.”
Probably more barbers have become doctors than any other artisans, for the reason that barbers were formerly nearly the only acknowledged “blood-letters.” In the earlier days of Abernethy, barber surgeons were recognized, and the great doctor said of himself, “I have often doffed my hat to those fellows, with a razor between their teeth and a lancet in their hands.” Doubtless some of them arrived to usefulness in the profession. ”

“ But it is essential to bear in mind that though the Charter of Edward IV was ostensibly to the Barbers, it really was granted to a fraternity, which to a great extent practised as Barber-Surgeons, some of whom were Surgeons pure and simple, others combined both branches, while others still carried on the more humble craft of Shavers and Hair-Dressers ”

“ The village barber has come to shave him. The Hindoo barber is a very important man. Not only has he under his care the shaven crowns, the smooth chins, and the close-cropped hair of his neighbours, but he is the village surgeon also, for the baid knows nothing of surgery. It is the barber who bores the ears and noses of the little girls to put in rings and ornaments. ”

“ Those “blodbendes,” or narrow strips for winding round the arm after bleeding, are curiously illustrative of an old national custom for health-sake kept up in the remembrance of some old folks still living, of periodical blood-letting. To his practices upon the heads and chins of people the barber at no remote period, added that of bleeding them; and the old English barber surgeons held a high position among the gilds of London. ”

“ It seems to me that I am well, or nearly so; and, in my judgment, to stay here longer will do me more harm than good, for I fret sorely to be thus tied."
"Your wound is not yet closed," said the surgeon, "though it is quite healed inside. After another dressing you may be able to ride, provided that your barber attends to dressing it with ointment and a little lint every day. The worst of the wound is now on the surface, and, as it will not touch your saddle, you will run no risk in riding." ”

“ Those students who were pursuing the course in medicine looked upon the surgical pupils as intruders, as men unworthy to associate with them, and they availed themselves of every possible opportunity for making their connection with the university unpleasant.
In Paris, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the surgeons formed themselves into corporations. Minor surgery was left entirely in the hands of the barbers (a word which is derived from the Latin “barbarus,” uncultivated) and barber-surgeons. They were largely itinerant practitioners and army surgeons. ”

“ Its membership, however, was select, and when the physicians declined an alliance with it, it amalgamated with the barber companies in 1540. The United Company of Barbers and Surgeons was peculiar in that strangers and those who were not free men were admitted, while the journeymen of the craft formed a subordinate body within the company. In 1745 the surgeons separated from the barbers and formed a surgeon's company which rapidly acquired influence. ”

“ The original charter to the Barber-Surgeons provided that the two mysteries of barbery and surgery should be kept distinct, and it gave facilities for obtaining the bodies of executed felons for purposes of anatomical98 study. There is no doubt that the anatomy lectures at the Barber-Surgeons’ Hall preceded those given by the physicians. The necessity of a knowledge of anatomy must have been felt daily by these early surgeons, and, like practical men, they took steps to supply their wants. The giving of these lectures, a physician being appointed lecturer, was the chief work of the Company. ”

“ The surgeons continued thus incorporated with the barbers, under the denomination of barber surgeons, till the year 1745; having the same hall, a very noble structure erected by Inigo Jones, in which is a theatre, wherein dissections were performed and lectures read. At that period the surgeons applying to parliament, observed, that since the two companies had been united, those who had practised surgery have from their constant application to the study of that science, rendered it of great benefit to the nation ”

“ In the year 1634 a course of lectures on surgery, delivered in Latin, and exclusively for the medical students, was added—a practical course of surgery in French already existed for the barber apprentices; and the faculty began to perceive that if they would keep their supremacy over the barber-surgeons, it would be as well to know as much as their disciples.
The oath taken by the professors is remarkable, especially the exordium: "We swear and solemnly promise to give our lessons in long gowns with wide sleeves, having the square cap on our heads, and the scarlet scarf on our shoulders." ”

“ I may here take the opportunity to remark that the Barbers and Barber-Surgeons held a somewhat distinctive position apart from other Companies, inasmuch as they were a Professional rather than a Trade Guild, and their History, consequently, becomes invested with an especial interest. Another point to which I, as a Barber, am proud to refer is that our Company stood out, alone, as the pioneer of Technical Education, hundreds of years before it became as popular as it now is. ”

“ There is an historical tradition which has led many to believe that the surgery of the fourteenth century was mainly in the hands of the barber surgeons—ignorant men who plied a rude handicraft in connection with some conventional use of the lancet—and that the physicians quite despised their surgical colleagues. ”

“ A barber may make you laugh, but a surgeon ought rather to make you cry.” ”

“ Previous to the separation in 1745, the office of Master was supposed to be, and generally was, held by a Barber and a Surgeon alternately, the Wardens being chosen in like manner, any member not practising as a Surgeon being accounted a Barber, whatever his trade or occupation might be.
Great importance has at all times been attached to the question of precedence in sitting at table and in speaking in Court, and many have been the rules enacted, and the disputes and jealousies which have arisen between members of the Court on this question. ”

“ Hitherto we have considered two distinct and somewhat hostile fraternities, the Surgeons on the one hand, and on the other the Barbers (consisting of Barbers and Barber-Surgeons) , both of them City Guilds, existing by prescription, having independent rules and Ordinances for their government and the scrutiny and correction of abuses in their respective Crafts, the former Company few in number, the latter far more numerous and popular; the Surgeons without, and the Barbers with, a Livery. ”

“ Among other bequests he gives five marks to such of the livery of the Company as shall follow him to the Church; he makes his son Thomas (then under age) his heir generally and provides for his wife Ann and daughter Elizabeth; he leaves to George Peren, Barber-Surgeon, his “yearball knowne by the name of Gerardꝭ yearball.”338
But if it shall please god soe that both my children shall die without issue Then my will is that ye Bell in Acton shall remaine for evˀ to the Company of the berber surgeons of London according as my unckle Mr Thomas Thorney hath hertofore bequeathed it. ”