A letter on the mutual relations of the two colleges with reference to the question of medical reform : addressed to David Maclagan, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Andrew Wood, M.D., president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by William Brown, F.R.S.E.
- Brown, William, F.R.S.E.
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter on the mutual relations of the two colleges with reference to the question of medical reform : addressed to David Maclagan, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Andrew Wood, M.D., president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by William Brown, F.R.S.E. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![render each division more perfect. It took place in the middle ages, when the prosperity of nations was disturbed by ever-return- ing bloody wars, when science and art (with but few exceptions) were shrunken and unhealthy, when the human mind occupied itself with trifles, when freedom, and thought, and action were alike pressed down by civil and ecclesiastical despotism. In many parts of Europe, the little medical knowledge which remained was found among the clergy; and perhaps they were the best parties among whom, at the time, it could be placed. But evils resulted from this arrangement. One of these was, that the clerical duties were in danger of being overlooked, and, to remedy this, various restrictions were imposed on sucb of the clergy as practised medicine. They were prohibited from those employments which were considered too indelicate and degrad- ing for the sacred functions of the priesthood ; and at length, by a papal decree in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Surgery was formally separated from Physic. A reason for this degradation of Surgery has been alleged in the maxim, Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine. * To supply the wants of society, the lay brethren were em- ployed in performing those operations and taking charge of those cases of disease which could not be attended to by the more sacred practitioners. These men were the barbers, and they continued to be barber-surgeons for some centuries. They gradually acquired a larger amount of learning than they at first had. Their skill and learning combined added to their social importance. They obtained charters of incorporation in almost all the European states; as their utility to the community in- creased, so did their estimation. Their privileges were aug- mented, and they were regarded, not as servants or assistants, but as on a footing of equality with the physicians. It was in France that the privileges of the surgeons were first distinctly marked out, and the arrangements adopted in Paris were generally followed in the other countries of Europe, although at later periods. The surgeons of Paris were formed into a Col- lege of Surgery in ] 268. In London the barber-surgeons re- • Thomson, p._15.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21478417_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
