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Barbers acted as professional surgeons across the world until surgery became a formalized profession. Maybe 200 years ago at best?
by wavefunction 7y ago
Barbers acted as professional surgeons across the world until surgery became a formalized profession. Maybe 200 years ago at best?
- CamperBob2 7y agoCorrect. No self-respecting "doctor" wanted anything to do with the messy business of surgery. I found The Devil's Doctor by Philip Ball to be an interesting book on this sort of thing.
- glangdale 7y agoThis is more of a ex-British empire thing, but at least some surgeons I have heard of in Australia insist, among medical company, of being called "Mister" not "Doctor", to set them apart from "mere doctors". I think this is a formal distinction in the UK, but in Australia I think both groups can be called Dr. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119265/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119265/
- Nursie 7y agoIn the UK the 'Dr' title is dropped for a doctor who has risen to become a consultant. Never heard of it working that way for surgeons
- monkeydreams 7y ago> but in Australia I think both groups can be called Dr. They can be called Dr, but will respond with a snippy "Mr Smith" if you do it.
- sandworm101 7y agoIt is also to do with the doctor-patient relationship. The surgeon-patient relationship is far more limited. A patient is refered to a surgeon by a doctor for a specific treatment.
- HarryHirsch 7y agoConsidering that in the pre-medchem era (i.e. until 1935 when sulphonamides entered the field) surgery was the only field of medicine that actually worked, this is strange. Physicians could diagnose patients just fine since before the days of Papyrus Eber, but the treatment options were very limited.
- nickles 7y ago> Physicians could diagnose patients just fine since before the days of Papyrus Eber, but the treatment options were very limited. Can you elaborate on this? Until germ theory and lesion theory, western medicine lacked the concept of etiology of disease, limiting the ability to accurately and consistently diagnose disease. Doctors operated within a Galenic framework and relied heavily, if not exclusively, on uroscopy for diagnosis (hence diabetes mellitus -- to pass through sweet urine). > surgery was the only field of medicine that actually worked "War is the only proper school for surgeons." -- Hippocrates Doctors, following Hippocratic and Galenic traditions, would refuse to perform surgery, due to its usage of knives and causing harm to the patient. Even the study of anatomy by means of human dissection was discouraged until the 16th century, when Vesalius and others published their landmark works. Prior anatomical publications (such as those by Leonardo da Vinci) likely presented dissections of other animals as if they were human, due to the presence of structures such as the rete mirabile. In the absence of antibiotics, surgery was a risky, and frequently lethal procedure. One surgery famously led to the death of 3 people. Before the advent of chloroform in the 1800s, there was no way for surgeons to effectively anesthetize subjects. Consequently, surgery was not looked upon favorably, nor considered a reliable medical practice.
- cyberferret 7y agoThey were probably doing equivalent things until more recently. My local barber has a retro sign hanging in his shop that looks to be an antique one from a barber shop probably in the 1800's. It lists 'tooth pulling' as one of the activities alongside har cutting and shaving etc. Strangely, the tooth extraction didn't cost much more than a shave & a haircut - I wonder what sort of anaesthetic was used!? :)
- EamonnMR 7y agoAlcohol. Which wasn't so much an anesthetic as it made the person unable to get up and flee.
- viraptor 7y agoI learned recently that the red stripe on the barber poles symbolises blood. Not something I expected.