How surgery became a profession in London / by D'Arcy Power.

  • Power, D'Arcy, 1855-1941.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How surgery became a profession in London / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Armada and was afterwards appointed surgeon to Queen Elizabeth. He died at Plaistow in Essex in 1604. Clowes published his books at intervals from 1575 to 1596, and Dr. Norman Moore well estimated their value when he said of them : “ They are the very best surgical writings of the Elizabethan age : they are all in English, the style is easy and forcible, sometimes a little prolix but never obscure”. They have the great merit that the author gives his own ex- perience and relies but little upon the theories of other people. Master Clowes in the following sentences gives a taste of his quality as well as a picture of the condition of surgery as he saw it : “ Where the learned physician or surgeon cannot be had for counsel, I am herein to admonish the friendly reader to take heed and not to commit themselves into the hands of every blind buzzard that will take upon them to let blood, yea, to the utter undoing of a number. For many in these days being no better than runagates or vagabonds, do extra- ordinarily, yea, disorderly and unadvisedly intrude themselves into other men’s professions, that is to say, not only in letting of blood, but also do take upon them further to intermeddle and practice in this art, wherein they were never trained nor had any experience : of the which a great number be shame- less in countenance, lewd in disposition, brutish in judgment and understanding as was their unlearned leader and master Thessalus, a vain practitioner, who when his cunning failed, straightways sent his patients to Lybia for change of air. . . . This their grand captain was by profession a teazler of wool and also the forerunner of this beastly brood following : which do forsake their honest trades, whereunto God hath called them, and do daily rush into physic and surgery. And some of them be Painters, some Glaziers, some Tailors, some Weavers, some Joiners, some Cutlers, some Cooks, some Bakers, and some Chandlers. Yea, now-a-days it is apparent to see how Tinkers, Tooth-drawers, Pedlers, Ostlers, Carters, Porters, Horse-gelders, and horse-leeches, Idiots, Apple- squires, broom-men, Bawds, witches, conjurers, Sooth-sayers and sow-gelders, Rogues, rat-catchers, runagates and proctors of Spittle-houses with such other like rotten and stinking weeds
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