Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 27

There are some amusing anecdotes related regarding a vocation for the medical profession. Andrew Rudiger, a physician of Leipsic, when at college, made an anagram of his name, and, in the words _Andreas Rudiger_ he found "_Arare Rus Dei Dignus_," or "worthy to cultivate the field of G.o.d." He immediately fancied that his vocation was the church, and commenced his theological studies. Showing but little disposition for the clerical calling, the learned Thomasius recommended him to return to his original pursuits. Rudiger confessed that he had more inclination for the profession of medicine than the church; but that he had considered the anagram of his name as a divine injunction. "There you are in error,"

replied Thomasius; "that very anagram calls you to the art of healing; for _Rus Dei_ clearly meaneth the churchyard."

The subject of quackery, in every sphere of life, whether it be resorted to by diplomatists or physicians, sanctimonious adventurers or fas.h.i.+onable _roues_, leads to serious consideration. How comes it that man seems more anxious to be deceived than enlightened? Simply from the errors of his education, which foster a love for the marvellous, and induce him to admire that which really is not or cannot be comprehended. The superiority of the intellectual faculties of the ancients, at an earlier age than the generality of men in the present times, is solely to be attributed to their having been brought up with philosophical views. Mallebranche has justly said, "that to become a philosopher, we must _see clearly_; but to be endued with faith, we must _believe blindly_." Although we cannot admit this axiom in matters of revealed religion, yet in many worldly concerns it does hold. If a youth was not educated with the scholastic jargon, commonly called learning, he would be considered ignorant. Helvetius has said, that man is born ignorant, but not a fool; and that it is even no easy matter to make him one; and the same writer has very justly divided stupidity into that which is natural, arising from ignorance, and that which is acquired and the result of instruction. It is thus that, by speaking to the pa.s.sions, naturally weak, and to our desires and apprehensions, ever ready to grasp at a favourite phantom,--the artful manage to exercise a more powerful control, and incline persons to believe what their senses actually discredit. The traffic of hope and fear has ever been a lucrative trade; and while fear became the staple commodity of priestcraft, hope was the fortune of medical quacks. The multiplication of sins increased the profits of the one; the various diseases, real and imaginary, to which flesh is heir, became the source of emolument to the other. It is under these cherished impressions of ameliorating our condition, that many men of common sense, and even of judgment, are induced to rely on the most absurd and fallacious promises; so p.r.o.ne are we to believe all that we wish;--the fidelity of a woman, the truth of a sycophant, and the candour of a flatterer. If there could be established a regular college of quackery, where the errors of mankind might be studied, and pupils taught to avail themselves of their follies, as a future vocation, a more perfect knowledge of the world would be acquired than in all the universities in Europe. Our sovereigns would be wise in selecting their ministers amongst the graduates of this academy. Cardinal Du Perron, who, in a long homily, convinced his sovereign, Henry III., of the existence of a G.o.d, and afterwards informed him that he would prove the contrary, if it could afford his Majesty any consolation, might have been selected as a proper rector for such an inst.i.tution.

It is also to be observed that the founders of all doctrines, however hypothetical and absurd, have generally a.s.sumed a dogmatic language, which gives to their fallacious a.s.sertions an appearance of truth, and Bacon has long ago said, "Method, carrying a show of total and perfect knowledge, has a tendency to general acquiescence."

Quackery is considered by many pract.i.tioners as necessary to forward the views of medical men. It is related of Charles Patin, that being on a visit to a physician at Basle, where his son was studying medicine, he questioned the youth on the princ.i.p.al studies required to form a physician; to which the future candidate for medical popularity replied, "Anatomy, physiology, pathology, and therapeutics." "You have omitted the chief pursuit," replied his catechiser, "_quackery_."

When we cast our eyes on the absurd names which many Italian academies adopted to characterize the nature of their studies, we find an ample ill.u.s.tration of this science in the _Seraphici_, the _Oscuri_, the _Immaturi_, the _Infecundi_, the _Offuscati_, the _Somnolenti_, and _Phantastici_!

The most ridiculous and disgusting epithets have been considered honourable distinctions. Thus, when the science of _Uroscopia_ and _Uromancy_ prevailed, we find a Dr. Theodorus Charles, a Wirtemberg physician, calling another learned pract.i.tioner, "_Urinosa Claritas_."

ON THE USE OF TEA.

Such is the growing consumption of this now indispensable article in England, that in 1789 there were imported 14,534,601 lbs., and in 1833 the quant.i.ty was increased to 31,829,620 lbs.; the latter importation yielding a revenue of 3,444,101_l._ In other countries we find the consumption much less. Russia in 1832 imported 6,461,064 lbs.; Holland consumes about 2,800,000 lbs., and France only 230,000 lbs.

It is supposed that tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch, about the middle of the seventeenth century; and Lords Arlington and Ossory are said to be the first persons who made it known in England. In 1641, Tulpius, a Dutch physician, mentioned it in his works. In 1667, Fouquet, a French physician, recommended it to the French faculty; and in 1678, an elaborate treatise was written on it by Cornelius Boutkoe, physician to the Elector of Brandenburg. About the same time, several travellers and missionaries, amongst whom we find Koempfer, Kalm, Osbeck, Duhalde, and Lecomte, give various accounts of the plant and its divers qualities.

The Chinese name of this plant is _theh_, a _Fokien_ word. In the Mandarin it is _tcha_, and the j.a.panese call it _tsjaa_. _Loureiro_, in his _Flora Cochin-China_, describes three species of tea. It is a polyandrous plant of the natural order _Columniferae_, growing to a height varying from three to six feet, and bearing a great resemblance to our myrtle. The blossom is white, with yellow style and anthers, not unlike that of the dog-rose; the leaves are the only valuable part of the plant. The _camellias_, particularly the _camellia sesanqua_, of the same natural family, are the only plants liable to be confounded with it. The leaves of the latter camellia are indeed frequently used as a subst.i.tute for those of the tea-plant in several districts of China. This shrub is a hardy evergreen, growing in the open air from the equator to the forty-fifth degree of northern lat.i.tude; but the climate that appears the most congenial to it seems to be between the twenty-fifth and thirty-third degree. Almost every province and district in China produces tea for local consumption: but what is cultivated for trade is chiefly in Fokien, Canton, Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-Kiang; Fokien being celebrated for its black tea, and Kiang-nan for the green. The plant is also cultivated in j.a.pan, Tonquin, and Cochin-China, and in some parts of the mountainous tracts of Ava, where, in addition to its use in infusion, it is converted into a pickle preserved in oil. When tea was first introduced as a luxury on particular occasions in the wild districts of Ireland, the people used to throw away the water in which it had been boiled, and eat the leaves with salt-b.u.t.ter or bacon like greens. The Dutch are now endeavouring to propagate this valuable plant in Java, and for that purpose employ cultivators, who have emigrated from Fokien. The Brazilians are making similar attempts, and some tolerable tea has been reared near Rio Janeiro.

The black teas usually imported from Canton are the _bohea_, _congou_, _souchong_, and _pekoe_, according to our orthography: the French missionaries spelt them as follows: _boui_, _camphou_ or _campoui_, _saotchaon_, and _pekao_ or _peko_. Our green teas are the _tw.a.n.kay_, _hyson-skin_, and _hyson_, _imperial_, and _gunpowder_; the first of which French travellers write _tonkay_, _hayswin-skine_, and _hayswin_. The French import a tea called _tehulan_, but it is artificially flavoured with a leaf called _lan hoa_, or the _olea fragrans_ of Linnaeus.

The tea-plant grows to perfection in two or three years: the leaves are carefully picked by the family of the growers, and immediately carried to market, where they are purchased for drying in sheds. The tea-merchants from Canton repair to the several districts where it is produced, and, after purchasing the leaves thus simply desiccated, submit them to various manipulations; after which they are packed in branded cases and parcels called _chops_, from a Chinese word meaning a seal. Some of the leaf-buds of the finest black tea plants are picked early in the spring, before they expand: these const.i.tute _pekoe_, sometimes called "white-blossomed tea,"

from their being intermixed with the blossoms of the _olea fragrans_. The younger the leaf, the more high-flavoured and valuable is the tea. Green teas are grown and gathered in the same manner; but amongst these the gunpowder stands in the grade of the _pekoe_ among the black, being prepared with the unopened buds of the spring crops. The alleged preparation of green teas upon copper plates, to give them a verdant colour, is an idle story. They are dried in iron vases over a gentle fire; and the operator conducts this delicate work with his naked hand, and the utmost care not to break the fragile leaves. This part of the manipulation is considered the most difficult, as the leaves are rolled into their usual shape between the palms of the hands until they are cold, to prevent them from unrolling. Teas are adulterated by various odoriferous plants, more especially the _vitex pinnata_, the _chloranthus inconspicuus_, and the _illicium anisatum_. In our markets the chief adulteration is operated by the mixture of sloe and ash leaves, and colouring with terra j.a.ponica and other drugs.

That tea is a substance injurious to health is beyond a doubt. Nothing but long habit from early life renders it less baneful than it otherwise would be: persons who take its infusion for the first time invariably experience uncomfortable sensations. It is well known that individuals who are not in the practice of taking tea in the evening, never transgress this habit with impunity; and it is quite clear that a preparation which deprives them of sleep, and renders them restless during a whole night, cannot be salubrious by day; and although the following opinion of Dr. Trotter regarding the use of this leaf is somewhat exaggerated, it is founded on experience; and I have known several persons afflicted with a variety of serious affections who never could obtain relief until they had ceased to consume it.

"Tea is a beverage well suited to the taste of an indolent and voluptuous age. To the glutton it affords a grateful diluent after a voracious dinner; and, from being drunk warm, it gives a soothing stimulus to the stomach of the drunkard: but, however agreeable may be its immediate flavour, the ultimate effects are debility and nervous diseases. There may be conditions of health, indeed, where tea can do no harm, such as in the strong and athletic; but it is particularly hurtful to the female const.i.tution, to all persons who possess the hereditary predisposition to dyspepsia, and all diseases with which it is a.s.sociated, to gout, and to those who are naturally weak-nerved. Fine tea, where the narcotic quality seems to be concentrated, when taken in a strong infusion, by persons not accustomed to it, excites nausea and vomiting, tremors, cold sweats, vertigo, dimness of sight, and confusion of thought. I have known a number of men and women subject to nervous complaints, who could not use tea in any form without feeling a sudden increase of all their unpleasant symptoms; particularly acidity of the stomach, vertigo, and dimness of the eyes. As the use of this article of diet extends among the lower orders of the community and the labouring poor, it must do the more harm. A man or a woman who has to go through much toil and hards.h.i.+p has need of substantial nourishment; but that is not to be obtained from an infusion of tea. And if the humble returns of their industry are expended in this leaf, what remains for the purchase of food better adapted to labour? In this case tea becomes hurtful, not only from its narcotic quality, but because that quality acts with double force in a body weakened from other causes. This certainly is one great reason for the increased and increasing proportion of nervous, bilious, spasmodic, and stomach complaints, &c. appearing among the lower ranks of life."

It is well known that tea is frequently resorted to by literary men to keep them awake during their lucubrations. Dr. Cullen said he never could take it without feeling gouty symptoms; and we frequently see aged females, who are in the habit of taking strong green tea, subject to paralytic affections. Many experienced physicians, such as Grimm, Crugerus, Wytt, Murray, Letsom, condemn the abuse of the plant as highly dangerous.[25] That it is a most powerful astringent we well know; and the hands of the Chinese who are employed in its preparation are shrivelled, and, to all appearance, burned with caustic. Chemists have extracted from it an astringent liquor containing tannin and gallic acid. This liquor, injected in the veins or under the integuments of frogs, produces palsy of the posterior extremities, and, applied to the sciatic nerve for half an hour, has occasioned death.

There is no doubt that tea acts differently on various individuals. In some it is highly stimulant and exhilarating; in others its effects are oppression and lowness of spirits; and I have known a person who could never indulge in this beverage without experiencing a disposition to commit suicide, and nothing could arouse him from this state of morbid excitement but the pleasure of destroying something, books, papers, or any thing within his reach. Under no other circ.u.mstances than this influence of tea were these fearful aberrations observed. It has been remarked that all tea-drinking nations are essentially of a leucophlegmatic temperament, predisposed to scrofulous and nervous diseases. The Chinese, even the degraded Tartar races amongst them, are weak and infirm, their women subject to various diseases arising from debility. Although their confined mode of living, and want of the means of enjoying pure air and exercise, materially tends to render them liable to these affections; still their immoderate use of strong green tea, taken, it is true, in very small quant.i.ties at the time, but repeatedly, greatly adds to this predisposition.

From long experience I am convinced that, although tea may in general be considered a refres.h.i.+ng and harmless beverage, yet in some peculiar cases it is decidedly injurious; and many diseases that have baffled all medical exertions, have yielded to the same curative means so soon as the action of tea had been suspended.

MANDRAGORE.

Self-styled wandering Turks and Armenians are frequently met with in crowded cities vending rhubarb, tooth-powder, and various drugs and nostrums, exciting the curiosity of the idlers that group around them, by exhibiting a root bearing a strong resemblance to the human form. This is the far-famed mandragore, of which such wonderful accounts have been related by both ancients and moderns.

This plant is the _Atropa Mandragora_ of Linnaeus, and grows wild in the mountainous and shaded parts of Italy, Spain, and the Levant, where it is also cultivated in gardens. The root bears such a likeness, at least in fancy's eyes, to our species, that it was called _Semi-h.o.m.o_. Hence says Columella,

Quamvis semihominis vesano gramine foeta Mandragora pariat flores moestamque cicutam.

The word _vesano_ clearly refers to the supposed power it possessed of exciting delirium. It was also named _Circaea_, from its having been one of the mystic ingredients employed in Circe's spells; although the wonderful mandragore was ineffectual against the more powerful herb the _Moly_, which Ulysses received from Mercury. This human resemblance of the root, which is, moreover, of a blackish hue and hairy, inspired the vulgar with the idea that it was nothing less than a familiar daemon. It was gathered with curious rites: three times a magic circle was drawn round it with a naked sword; and the person who was daring enough to pluck it from the earth, was subject to manifold dangers and diseases, unless under some special protection; therefore it was not unusual to get it eradicated by a dog, fastened to it by a cord, and who was whipped off until the precious root was pulled out. According to Josephus, the plant called _Buaras_, which was gifted with the faculty of keeping off evil spirits, was obtained by a similar canine operation. Often, it was a.s.serted, did the mandragore utter piteous cries and groans, when thus severed from mother earth. Albertus the Great affirms that the root has a more powerful action when growing under a gibbet, and is brought to greater perfection by the nouris.h.i.+ng secretions that drop from the criminal's dangling corpse.

Amongst its many wonderful properties, it was said to double the amount of money that was locked up with it in a box. It was also all-powerful in detecting hidden treasures. Most probably the mandragore had bad qualities to underrate its good ones. Amongst these, we must certainly cla.s.s the blackest ingrat.i.tude, since it never seemed to benefit the eloquent advocates of its virtues, who, in general, were as poor as their boasted plant was rich in attraction.

It was also supposed to possess the delightful faculty of increasing population and exciting love; and the Emperor Julian writes to Calixines that he is drinking the juice of mandragore to render him amorous. Hence was it called _Loveapple_; and Venus bore the name of _Mandragontis_. It has been a.s.serted by various scholiasts, that the _mandrake_ which Reuben found in the fields and carried to his mother, Leah, was the mandragore; the _Dudam_, however, which he gathered was not, according to all accounts, an unpleasant fruit, but is supposed to have been a species of orchis, still used in the East in love-philters and prolific potions. The word _Dudam_ seems to express a tuberculated plant; and in Solomon's Songs, he thus describes it: "The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved." Now it is utterly impossible, whatever may have been the revolution in taste since the days of Solomon, that the nauseous and offensive mandragore could have been considered as a propitiating present to a lady.

The etymology of the word _Dudam_ would seem to describe it. It is derived from the word [Hebrew], (_Dadim_) b.r.e.a.s.t.s, or [Hebrew], (_Dodim_) friends, neighbours, twins; which indicates that this plant is formed of two similar parts. It is thought that the _Dudam_ might be the highly-scented melon which is cultivated in the East, especially in Persia, and known by the name of _Destenbuje_, or the _Cuc.u.mis Dudam_ of Linnaeus, and which is also found in Italy, where its powerful aroma is imparted to garments and chambers. It must have been an odoriferous production, since in the _Talmud_ we find it denominated _Siglin_, which has been considered the jessamine or the lily. The orchis is remarkable for its double bulbous roots and its agreeable perfume; we may therefore justify the idea that the _Dudam_ of the Jews was a species of this plant.

Frontinus informs us that Hannibal employed mandragore in one of his warlike stratagems, when he feigned a retreat, and left in the possession of the barbarians a quant.i.ty of wine in which this plant had been infused.

Intoxicated by the potent beverage, they were unable to withstand his second attack, and were easily put to the sword. Was it the mandragore that saved the Scotch in a similar _ruse de guerre_ with the Danish invaders of Sweno? It is supposed to have been the _Belladonna_, or deadly nightshade, the effects of which are not dissimilar to those of the plant in question.

In the north of Europe, this substance is still used for medicinal purposes; and Boerhaave, Hoffberg, and Swediaur have strongly recommended it in glandular swellings, arthritic pains, and various diseases where a profuse perspiration may be desirable.

Machiavel has made the fabulous powers of the mandragore the subject of a comedy, and Lafontaine has employed it as an agent in one of his tales.

Another root that excited superst.i.tious phantasies and reverential awe, from its supposed resemblance to the human form, was the Gin-seng, a Chinese production, which, according to the author of the _Kao-li-tchi-tsan_, or Eulogium of the Kingdom of Corea, "imitates the configuration of man and the efficacy of spiritual comfort, possessing hands and feet like a human being, and the mental virtues that no one can easily comprehend." According to Jartoux, _Gin-seng_ signifies "the representation of man." It appears, however, that the learned father was in error. _Jin_, it is true, signifies _man_; but _Chen_ does not mean representation, but a _ternary body_. Hence _Gin-seng_ signifies the _ternary of man, making three with man and heaven_!--no doubt some superst.i.tious tradition, since this root bears various names in other countries, that plainly denote the veneration in which it was held. In j.a.pan it is called _Nindsin_, and _Orkhoda_ in the Tatar-Mandchou language, both of which mean "the queen of plants." Father Lafitau informs us that the name of _Garent-oguen_ of the Iroquois, which it also bears, means the _thighs of man_. The _Gin-seng_ is a native of Tartary, Corea, and also thrives in Canada, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, in shaded and damp situations, as it soon perishes under the solar rays. The Chinese attach considerable value to it. Thunberg informs us that it sometimes is sold for forty pounds a pound; and Osbeck states that in his time it was worth twenty-four times its weight in silver. This enormous price frequently induced foreign smugglers to bring it into the Chinese territory; but the severest laws were enacted to punish this fraudulent traffic. The Tartars alone possess the privilege of cultivating and collecting it; and the districts that produce this precious plant are surrounded with palisades, and strictly guarded. In 1707, the Emperor of China, to increase his revenue, sent a body of ten thousand troops to collect the gin-seng. According to the Chinese physicians, this root possesses the faculty of renovating exhausted const.i.tutions, giving fresh vigour, raising the drooping moral and physical faculties, and restoring to health and _embonpoint_ the victim of debauchery. It is also said that a bit of the root chewed by a man running a race will prevent his compet.i.tor from getting the start of him. It is somewhat singular that the same property is attributed to garlic; and the Hungarian jockeys frequently tie a clove of it to their racers' bits, when the horses that run against them fall back the moment they breathe the offensive odour. It has been proved that no horse will eat in a manger if the mouth of any other steed in the stable has been rubbed with the juice of this plant. I had occasion to ascertain this fact. A horse of mine was in the same stall with one belonging to a brother officer; mine fell away and refused his food, while his companion throve uncommonly well. I at last discovered that a German groom, who had charge of the prosperous animal, had recourse to this vile stratagem. It is also supposed that men who eat garlic knock up upon a march the soldiers who have not made use of it. Hence, in the old regulations of the French armies, there existed an order to prohibit the use of garlic when troops were on a march.

BARBER-SURGEONS, AND THE PROGRESS OF CHIRURGICAL ART.

No consideration should render man more thankful to his Creator, and justly proud of the progress of human intellect, than the perfection to which the art of surgery has been carried. In its present improved condition, we are struck with horror at the perusal of the ancient practice, and marvel that its barbarity did not sooner induce its professors to diminish the sum of misery it inflicted on their victims.

Ignorance, and its offspring Superst.i.tion, seemed to sanctify this darkness. Improvement was considered as impious and unnecessary; and to deny the powers of the chirurgical art, heresy against the holy men, who alone were permitted to exercise it.

This supposed divine attribute of the priesthood can be traced to remote ages: aesculapius was son of Apollo, and princes and heroes did not consider the art of surgery beneath their dignity. Homer has ill.u.s.trated the skill of Podalirius and Chiron; and Idomeneus bids Nestor to mount his chariot with Machaon, who alone was more precious than a thousand warriors; while we find Podalirius, wrecked and forlorn on the Carian coast, leading to the altar the daughter of the monarch whom he cured, and whose subjects raised a temple to his memory, and paid him divine honours.

Tradition informs us, that in the infancy of the art all its branches were exercised indiscriminately by the medical pract.i.tioners. It was not then supposed that the human body was subject to distinct affections, external and internal; yet, as its study advanced, the ancients were led into an opposite extreme, and we find that in Egypt each disease became the province of a special attendant, regulated in his treatment by the sacred records handed down by their hierarchy.

Herodotus informs us, that "so wisely was medicine managed by the Egyptians, that no physician was allowed to practise any but his own peculiar branch." Accouchments were exclusively the province of females.

These pract.i.tioners were remunerated by the state; and they were severely punished, when, by any experimental trials, they deviated from the prescribed rules imposed upon them, and, in the event of any patient dying under a treatment differing from the established practice, the medical attendant was considered guilty of a capital offence. These wise provisions were made, says Diodorus, in the full conviction that few persons were capable of introducing any new treatment superior to that which had been sanctioned and approved by old pract.i.tioners.

Pliny complains that no such laws existed in Rome, where a physician was the only man who could commit murder with impunity; "Nulla praeterea lex,"

he says, "quae puniat inscitium capitalem, nullum exemplum vindictae.

Disc.u.n.t periculis nostris, et experimenta per mortes agunt: medicoque tantum hominem occidisse impunitas summa est."

By one of these singular anomalies in public opinion, this supposed divine science was soon considered an ign.o.ble profession. In Rome it was chiefly practised by slaves, freedmen, or foreigners. From the overthrow of the Roman empire till the revival of literature and the arts in Europe, medicine and surgery sought a refuge amongst the Arabians, who studied both branches in common; for, though exiled to the coast of Africa in point of scientific cultivation, it was necessarily cultivated in other countries, and in the greater part of Europe became the exclusive right of ecclesiastics. In time, however, it was gradually wrested from their hands by daily necessities; and every one, even amongst the lowest cla.s.ses, professed himself a surgeon, and the cure of the hurt and the lame was intrusted to menials and women.

As the church could no longer monopolize the art of healing, it became expedient to stigmatize it, although that very faculty had but lately been their boast; but it had fallen within the powers of vulgar and profane comprehension, and therefore was useless to maintain sacerdotal pre-eminence. In 1163, the Council of Tours, held by Pope Alexander III., maintained that the devil, to seduce the priesthood from the duties of the altar, involved them in mundane occupations, which, under the plea of humanity, exposed them to constant and perilous temptations. The edict not only prohibited the study both of medicine and law amongst all that had taken religious vows, but actually excommunicated every ecclesiastic who might infringe the decree. It appears, however, that the temptations of the evil one were still attractive, as Pope Honorius III., in 1215, was obliged to fulminate a fresh anathema on transgressors, with an additional canon, ordaining that, as the church abhorred all cruel or sanguinary practices, not only no priest should be allowed the practice of surgery, but should refuse their benediction to all who professed it.[26]

The practice then fell into the hands of laymen, although priests, still regretting the advantages that it formerly had yielded them, were consulted in their convents or houses; and when patients could not visit them without exposing them to clerical censure, they a.s.serted their ability to cure diseases by the mere inspection of the patient's dejections; and so much faith was reposed in this filthy practice, that Henry II. decreed that upon the complaints of the heirs of persons who died through the fault of their physicians, the latter should suffer capital punishment, as having been the cause of their patient's death, unless they had scientifically examined what was submitted to their investigation by the deceased's relatives or domestics: and then proceeded to prescribe for the malady.

Unable to quit their cloisters, in surgical cases, which could not be so easily cured at a distance, sooner than lose the emoluments of the profession, they sent their servants, or rather the barbers of the community, who shaved, and bled, and drew teeth in their neighbourhood ever since the clergy could no longer perform these operations, on the plea of the maxim "_Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine_;" bleeding and tooth-drawing being, I believe, the only cases where this maxim was noticed. From this circ.u.mstance arose the barber craft or barber-surgeons.

These pract.i.tioners, from their various avocations, were necessarily dexterous; for, in addition to the skill required for good shaving, tonsurating the crowns of clerical heads was a delicate operation; and it was about this period that Pope Alexander III. revised the canon issued by the synod of Carthage respecting the tonsure of the clergy. Surgery being thus degraded, the separation between its practice and that of medicine became unavoidable, and the two branches were formally made distinct by bulls of Boniface VI. and Clement V.