Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1896 — Surgery in the Middle Ages. [ARTICLE]

Surgery in the Middle Ages.

In the middle of the twelfth century priests were the only doctors. By an edict of the council of Tours, surgery was separated from medicine, and the practice of the former forbidden to the clergy. The latter then employed their barbers to perform surgical operations This arose from the fact of the monks having their heads shaved frequently, and observing the dexterity acquired by the barbers in the use of edge tools. The knights of the razor, from cupping and bleeding, passed on to tooth-draw-ing, and finally to other operations requiring skill and deftness, if not much knowledge. They knew practically nothing of anatomy. It is said surgery was denied by the clergy by a canon of the church which forbade them to shed blood. This was considered the dark age of medicine, and somber, indeed, it must have been to the worthy citizen who, perhaps, placing himself in the hands of the barber for relief, might, at the same time that he was getting rid of a tumor, also part company with his head.