Concord!, or, Medical men and manners of the nineteenth century / by Atithasseutos.

  • Atithasseutos.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Concord!, or, Medical men and manners of the nineteenth century / by Atithasseutos. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    that, generations ago, ignorant men and women were “ doctors ” such as himself. “ Ignorant men and women,” I say, and I leave it to my readers to form their own opinion when they have read the following from the “System of Surgery ” of Guy de Cauliac, published in Pai’is in the fourteenth century: “ The practitioners in surgery are divided into five sects. The first follow Roger and Roland, and the four masters, and apply poultices to all wounds and abscesses. The second follow JBrunus and Tbeodoric, and in the same cases use wine only. The third follow Saliceto and Lan- franc, and treat wounds with ointments and soft plasters. The fourth are chiefly Germans, who attend the armies, and promis- cuously use potions, oil and wool. The fifth are old women and ignorant people, who have recourse to the saints in all cases.” From this we see that if medicine was in a somewhat backward state at the time, surgery was little better. But in truth, now after the lapse of more than five hundred years since the above was published, we have our due share of “ old women and ignor- ant people ” in the profession still, although their faith and the faith of the general public too, in the saints, is not so lively now. However, from such crude beginnings arose the science and art of medicine, as we know it—each generation and each original thinker adding something to the general fund of knowledge. But the sixteenth century—especially the “Renaissance” period—was notably rich in discovery and invention, as already remarked upon. To meet the growing demand for professional culture, col- leges were now established, as well as universities and schools. The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, was the first of these colleges established anywhere in all the realms of Great Britain and Ireland. It was chartered so early as 1505, or about three hundred years before its namesake in London. In England, the need for duly qualified practitioners was so urgent that early in the reign of Henry VIII. the first attempt at founding a Faculty or College was made. I here append the ■earliest Act of Parliament I can find on the subject. It was passed in the third year of the reign of Henry VIII. (1511). Its title and text are as follow: “ An Act concerning Phesecions and Surgeons. “ FORA.SMOCHE as the science and connyng of physyke [and surgie] to the pfecte knowlege wherof bee requisite bothe grete lernyng and ripe expience ys daily within this royalme exc’cised by a grete multitude of ignoraunt psones of whom the grete partie have no kind of insight in the same nor in any other kynde of lernyng some also ca’n* no tresf on the boke soofarfurth that * Ca’n—know. t Letters.