Barber-surgeons

Physicians were not expected to either draw blood or perform surgeries.  These tasks were the responsibility of the surgeons, or the barber-surgeons.  Their training was even worse than the physicians, and they often got stuck with jobs the physicians did not want, such as in prisons and on ships during war.  Other than bleeding, surgeries were very rare, since everyone knew the dangers of infection although they did not know how infections were passed.  The typical surgeries were cutting out cancers of the skin and breast, removal of stones in the bladder, tonsillectomies, drilling holes in the scalp to relieve pressure on the brain, and amputations. No clean surgery rooms in this age – surgeries were performed on wooden operating tables with sawdust on the floor to absorb the blood.  Surgeries were short – a good surgeon took out bladder stones in 30 seconds to a minute and amputated a leg in 2-4 minutes (Olsen, 262-64). 

Surgeons knew more about anatomy than physicians.  In London surgeons had to have served a 7 year apprenticeship, whereupon they became members of the Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons.  The barbers did blood-letting, extracted teeth, shaved beards and heads, and made wigs.  Since the barbers sold condoms, their partners the surgeons ended up being the experts at venereal disease (Waller, 86-89).

 

18th century amputation instruments used by surgeons (Source: Wellcome Library, London)