TABLE OF CONTENTS In the middle ages physicians considered that, although sometimes necessary, surgery usually limited to blood letting, the removal of external growths, or the repair of superficial damage was beneath their notice, and should be left to the "manual labourers" of the craft.
As a result, there developed the barber surgeon, the wound surgeon and the surgeon apothecary. Some of these rather quaint titles have survived to the present day, although their holders are invariably highly qualified professionals. Examples include the Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen and the Apothecary to the Household of Windsor. The American armed forces, and the US Government, also have a Surgeon General.
By the 18th century, with increasing knowledge of anatomy, the successful amputation of legs and arms, the excision of tumours on, or just below, the skin surface, and the removal of stones from the bladder, led to a growing respect for surgery, and even the surgeon himself!
In the early 19th century surgeons were beginning to become more adventurous, but were hampered in their enthusiasm by the pain suffered by the patient during these operations. One result of this limitation was that surgeons tended to speed up their operative procedures so as to complete as much as possible before the patient could stand the pain and stress no longer! It took almost a hundred years, and the introduction of really effective anaesthetics, before surgeons learned to slow down.
This more leisurely approach also made it possible to introduce new techniques. Basic procedures were...
