Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Barbers and surgeons. 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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![/ h h ath; but it becomes tn^fch greaterjvhen ascfndlng in- lined surfaces, snails c]imbiiJf/pie sides aMnllSand lountains. thes^ciiyiyi^pnces tjfrspf'ed is iminished, ^ul is expended in lising the body/iipwhrds. DuHng this period^ the umber of respirations, as well as the nunj^r^T-pul- itions of the heart in a second, augmen^f pid a .•eling of languor and fatigue comiWn4erugs~ta. the iedestrian th© conviction thatHra. ha|5loh^as much cork as his'system will aust'ftin-trtOiout^aJ^cr over] itigue, and ,top ^reat h prostration oystPMfcth^-a cop- ition from Vfiick it ofteqjakes '^fr’T/r^Sir ruit. On th&otfreKjjand, a dip>^xe5«se of muscular ction in walkings r>f?tA^saryT^vta;have already seen, > the healthy and vlgotgiis j^^ot the several organs if the human body. BARBERS AND SURGEONS. Ve are but too apt to overlook the slow and silent peration of the great principles upon which what is low known as the science of political economy are pftnded, although they are sutficiently curious and bvious, even in matters which might be deemed too igh or too low to be thought within their influence, ’hey prevail unconsciously in the progress of society com a low to a high state of civilization; and the t ainted pole and decayed teeth which formerly desig- ated and ornamented the barber’s shop, offer an ex- inplification of the results of a division and union of mployments, interesting enough to justify a short mtice of their history. It is a remarkable fact that the curative art, an art o highly beneficial and even necessary to the well- leing of mankind, should for a very lengthened period iiave existed entirely or chiefly in a merely auxiliary tate. Without going into any historical proofs, we nay state that in the earliest times it was auxiliary to he priesthood. Tn the middle ages it was practised >y females of the highest classes, and, perhaps as a emnant of these ages in our own country, to a com- >aratively recent time, few villages were without their ,ady Bountiful, who by their simples and specifics dleviated or aggravated, as it might happen, the ail- nents of the confiding rustics. The union of the barber with the surgeon is not Tery distinctly traced. The Egyptian priests, it would ippear, shaved, and in the legislation of Moses (Levi- mus, chap, xiv.) concerning leprosy, the treatment of vhich disease was intrusted to the priests, he directs, >n the recovery of a leper, that the head, eyebrows, and leard should be shaved. This could hardly be done jy the patient himself. Civilization, however, gradu- ally rendered the medical an independent, instead of in auxiliary art. Amongst the Greeks and Romans here were eminent medical practitioners; but in the East, where science dawned, but never attained its ze- nith. the medical profession was, and yet is, commonly united with that of the bath-keeper and the barber. In he middle ages of Europe it again merged into the priesthood, and monks and friars, with a few Jews, the disciples of the Arabians, were the general possessors jf the healing art. But here superstition produced the same effect, for a time, that civilization would have more beneficially effected. In 1163 the Council of Tours prohibited the clergy 10m performing any operations in which there was loss of blood. Surgery was also banished from the universities, under the pretext that the church held in ibhorrence all kinds of bloodshed. This separation vas the more readily effected in consequence of the jarbers and bath-keepers having assumed the practice jf surgery. In France the Company of Barbers was formed in 1096, when William, then Archbishop of Rouen, pro- hibited the wearing of the beard. The bath-keepers, who pretended to much medical knowledge, by pre- paring medicated baths suited to different diseases and constitutions, and also by previously preparing the body by laxatives and venesection, shared with the bar- bers for a long period the practice of the healing art. Meanwhile the mists of the middle ages were gradu- ally dispersing, and surgery, illumined by the science of anatomy, began its progress towards a new and brilliant position. The profession of the barber, in the course of time, combined the art of the chirurgeon with the craft of the perruquier. In France the barbiers-cliirurgiens were separated from the barbiers-perruquiers in the time of Louis XIV., and made a distinct corporation. The barbers of London were first incorporated by King Edward IV., 1461, and at that time were the only per- sons who exercised the art of surgery. But this con- solidation of the two crafts could not be permanent. The gradual increase of wealth and luxury created a demand for superior skill in every department of me- dical and surgical science, and the consequence was, that persons of superior attainments began to apply themselves more to actual observation, and the acqui- sition of practical knowledge by a more careful study of the human body, and surgery was more enriched by the single discoveries of close observers than by all the preceding centuries of theory. These persons formed themselves into a voluntary association which they called the Company of Surgeons of London. The efforts of this association eventually effected the sepa- ration of the two crafts. By an Act passed in the 32nd of Henry VIII. these two companies were united and made one body corporate by the name of the Barbers and Sur- geons of London, but it is remarkable that this nominal incorporation was their virtual separation, for the bar- bers were not to practise surgery further than the draw- ing of teeth, and the surgeons were strictly prohibited from exercising the feat or craft of shaving. This dis- junct alliance continued till the year 1745, when, by an Act passed in the 18th of Geo. II., the barbers and sur- geons were disunited and made two distinct corpora- tions. Prior to this, however, many of the barbers, notwithstanding the legal prohibition, continued the practice of phlebotomy and the curing of wounds. The lute or guitar, as in former times, formed part of the furniture of the shop, which down to the reign of Queen Anne was frequented by a class of persons somewhat above the common level of the people. The musical instruments were for the entertainment of the customers, and answered the purpose of the news- paper, which in aftertimes became the great attraction of a barber’s shop. The barbers for a long period were distinguished by a professional idiosyncrasy, which has been noticed by Steele in one of the papers of the ‘Tatler.’ In speaking of Salter, commonly called Don Saltero, a noted and eccentric barber, fiddler, and col- lector of curiosities, he asks, “ Whence it should pro- ceed that, of all the lower order, barbers should go further in hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men? Watermen brawl, coblers sing; but why must a barber be for ever a politician, a musician, an ana- tomist, a poet, and a physician ?” But these profes- sional peculiarities gradually disappeared, and the barbers lost caste. In proportion as the profession of the surgeon rose into eminence and renown, that of the barber sunk into insignificance and obscurity. Anterior to this degradation, the two crafts of the barber and the peruke-maker were conjoined, and during the reign of Ann, and subsequently, when periwigs were in vogue, that of the latter was in a flourishing state ; but when, by the actual and complete separation of the barbers from the surgeons, the former declined in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22474948_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
