Some neighbouring institutions. II. The Royal College of Surgeons.

  • Hewitt, Charles Richard, 1870-1931.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some neighbouring institutions. II. The Royal College of Surgeons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    m. z. u.i. ou. tt»fr.\ i ..... THE'ROYAL CQLIeGE OF SURGEONS. :m 11 j. a 07 Some IRet^bbomlng 3nstitutton6. \ 4' .<'?’?• A' II. THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. 83 The early history of the Royal College of Surgeons of England is the history of two companies, which were for a time united into one body corporate. One of these, the Barbers’ Company of London is first mentioned in the records preserved at the Guildhall in 1308, and the other company, known as the Fellowship or Guild of Surgeons, is mentioned in the city records in 1369. Between these two companies there was for many years a keen rivalry and jealousy, each trying in turn to supersede the other in all matters relating to the practice of surgery. The outcome of the mutual animosities of the two companies was a confirmation by the mayor and aldermen, in 1424, of the surgical privileges of the barbers. Meanwhile the surgeons sought an alliance with the physicians, and, mainly through the influence of John Morstede, a surgeon who accompanied Henry V. to Agincourt, a college of physicians and surgeons was formally sanctioned by the mayor, and power granted to it to examine and control persons practising medicine and surgery in the city of London. It had but a short career. Freed from opposition the Barbers’ Company continued to grow in importance, and in 1462 the right of its members to practice surgery was definitely established by Letters Patent granted by Edward IV. In 1493 the Guild of Surgeons entered into an alliance or composition with the Barbers’ Company, by which the two companies agreed to act together in all matters relating to surgery and to the examination and government of its practitioners. In 1540 the two companies were formally united by Act of Parliament. Four masters or governors, two to be surgeons and two to be barbers, were appointed annually ; barbers were for- bidden to perform any surgical operation except the drawing of teeth, and surgeons were not to exercise the craft of barbery and shaving. Provision was also made for the study of anatomy by giving the company the right to claim four bodies annually of persons executed for felony. The united company shared the possession of Barbers’ Hall, which is known to have occupied its present site in Monkwell Street since 1490. The Hall, subsequently added to by Inigo Jones, is still standing, having escaped destruction in the Great Fire of London. Charles I. granted a further charter to the company, providing that ten of its freemen should be constituted examiners of surgeons in London. No one was to practise surgery in London, or within seven miles of it, except members of the College of Physicians, unless examined and approved by these examiners, and every person so approved might practise surgery anywhere in England. Appren- tices were to serve for not less than seven years, to be sound in body and limbs, and to read and understand Latin. After more than two hundred years of union, during which the two companies appear to have worked in harmony, there were signs that the surgeons began to find their association with the barbers irksome and inconvenient; moreover, several surgeons had by this time attained