History of the barber-surgeons of London / by T.J. Pettigrew.

  • Thomas Pettigrew
Date:
[1852?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the barber-surgeons of London / by T.J. Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    About the eighth century the practice of surgery seems to have fallen into neglect, or to have lost reputation as a distinct branch of science, the whole merging into that of the physician, who took all cases under his own dominion. It was not until the establishment of the medical schools, particularly that of Salerno, where examinations were reJ- quired before license to practice would be granted in the divisions of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy, that those departments were properly attended to, yet they were not generally practised distinct from each other, at least in places beside that of Salerno. The professors in the cele¬ brated schools of Padua and Bologna were alike professors of medicine and surgery. In our own country, upon the introduction of Christianity, medicine appears to have been entrusted to the monks and clergy. An interesting chapter in history might be formed by an account of the practice of medicine among the monks.1 The practice of medicine by the monks and clergy almost universally prevailed in the twelfth and thirteenth centu¬ ries, and it was not until the two professions of medicine and theology were found to interfere seriously with each other, that an edict was issued from the papal chair forbidding the pursuit of medicine by the clergy. It was under Louis VII that the Faculty of Medicine of Paris assumed a form of consequence in the university, the foundation of which is attributable to Charlemagne, and the attractions of the profession appear to have been so great, that the clerical physicians became neglectful of their sacred offices and spent most of their time in attending the lectures which were then delivered on the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and which formed a portion of the public exercises. The council of Tours, under pope Alexander III, issued an edict in 1163, forbidding the priests to quit their cloister or to exercise the profession: in consequence of which a few laymen were induced to enter upon the study; but these were refused to be received by the university without con¬ tracting a vow of celibacy, and after the course of their studies most of them became priests. The priests continued to follow the profession of medi¬ cine in their own abodes, and to those of the sick to whom 1 This subject is reserved for special notice in an article to be devoted to the history of medicine in the mediaeval period.
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