Senior Surgeon to the City Orthopaedic Hospital and Author ROYAL

246 ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND. railway-station, Brisbane, and at the date of the bulletin was character, for it consisted of two classes of members- those were barbers or the minor convalescent. As regards Hong-Kong, a telegram from the who simply practised only branches of such as and Governor received at the Colonial Office on July 23rd states surgery, blood-letting tooth-drawing, and those who exercised the faculty of surgery. In the that for the week 21st there were 7 cases of ending July year 1415 the mayor and aldermen required the company to plague and 5 deaths from the disease. furnish them with a list of all the latter class of members, from which they selected two as masters of those itself the election THE death is announced, at the age of 69 years, of our practising surgery, leaving to the company of the masters of the barbers. Meanwhile the Guild of eminent French confrere, Dr. Brouardel, who has for many sought an alliance with the physicians. About the been of medicine at the of Surgeons years professor legal University year 1423 they obtained an ordinance from the court of Paris. Dr. Brouardel was also an authority upon practical aldermen having for its object an association or commonalty hygiene and a prolific medical author. We hope to give some of physicians and surgeons. Fortified by the support of the the details of his life and work in an early issue. physicians the surgeons once more challenged surgical privileges of the barbers but these were again confirmed by the mayor and aldermen in 1424. The scheme for a com- THE annual dinner of the old students of St. Thomas’s bination of physicians and surgeons fell through but the Hospital will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 2nd, at the Hotel surgeons continued a separate body with ordinances for the Cecil, London, at 7 for 7.30 P.M. Dr. Arthur Newsholme, government of their Society. medical officer of health of Brighton, will be in the chair. Freed from opposition the Barbers’ Compa,ny continued to grow in importance and in the year 1462 the right of its members to practise surgery was definitely established by Letters THE death occurred on last of Mr. Noble Friday E. Smith, Patent granted by Edward IV. in the first year of his reign. senior surgeon to the City Orthopaedic Hospital and author This charter, from which the Royal College of Surgeons of of a well-known work upon orthopaedic surgery. England, as recited in the charter of 1800, dates its consti. tutional history as a body corporate, was granted to the freemen of the of barbers of the of London Mr. Charles Alfred Ballance, M.B., M.S.Lond., F.R.C.S. mystery City practising surgery. They were made one body and per- has been a member of the Victorian Eng., appointed Royal petual community with a common seal and with power to Order of the Fourth Class. hold lands and to make by-laws. In the year 1493 the Guild of Surgeons, which had continued as a separate body, entered into an alliance or ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF "composition" with the Barbers’ Company, by which the ENGLAND. two companies agreed each to appoint two wardens, the four so appointed to act together in all matters relating to surgery and to the examination and government of its prac- NEW HISTORICAL SUMMARY. titioners. The charter granted by Edward IV. to the Barbers’ was confirmed by Henry VII. and also by THE Historical of the Company recently prepared Summary Royal Henry VIII., but in 1511 an Act (3 Henry VIII., cap. 11) College of Surgeons is of special interest as being the first was passed, constituting a further licensing authority by account of the corporate life of the College. It is worthy of enacting that no person should practise as a physician or in or within seven miles of the note that the College centenary in 1900 led many to think surgeon London, same, unless first examined and approved by the Bishop of London, that the of as an institution was only 100 College Surgeons or the Dean of St. Paul’s, with the assistance of four whereas the of the could years old, corporate lineage College physicians or surgeons. In the year 1540 the two companies be traced back for nearly six centuries. The summary, of were formally united by Act of Parliament. The Act which the following is an extract. has been prepared by the (32 Henry VIII., cap. 42), after reciting that there were ex-President, Mr. John Tweedy, F.R.C.S., and Mr. S. Forrest two distinct companies of surgeons in London, one called Cowell, the secretary. the Barbers of London and the other the Surgeons of The early history of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, enacted that the two companies should from thence- England is the history of two companies which, existing at forth be united and made one body corporate to be called by first as separate fraternities or guilds, were for a time united the name of the Masters or Governors of the Mystery of the into one body corporate, and finally became resolved again Commonalty of the Barbers and Surgeons of London. The into two distinct corporations. One of these, the Barbers’ united company was to enjoy all the rights and privileges at Company of London, is first definitely mentioned in the any time granted to the two separate companies. Four records preserved at the Guildhall in the year 1308, when masters, two to be surgeons and two to be barbers, were to Richard le Barber was presented and sworn before the court be appointed annually ; barbers were forbidden to perform of aldermen as Master and Supervisor of the Barbers’ Guild ; any surgical operations except the drawing of teeth and and from an ordinance of the City made in the previous surgeons were not to exercise the craft of barbery and year it is evident that the barbers of London were at that shaving. Provision was also made for the study of anatomy time engaged in the practice of at least some branches of by giving the company the right to claim four bodies surgery. The other company, known as the Fellowship or annually of persons executed for felony. Thomas Vicary, Guild of Surgeons, is mentioned in the City records in the Serjeant-Surgeon to Henry VIII. and afterwards to Mary and year 1369. to Elizabeth, was elected the first master. The united Between these two bodies there was for many years a company shared the possession of Barbers’ Hall, which is keen rivalry and jealousy. Each tried by turns to attain known to have occupied its present site in Monkwell-street supremacy of authority and jurisdiction in matters relating since 1490, and was probably there even before that. The to the practice of surgery. In the year 1376 the barbers hall, subsequently added to by Inigo Jones in 1636, is still made a complaint to the mayor and aldermen against un- standing, having escaped destruction in the Great Fire of skilled practitioners in surgery, and obtained an ordinance London. providing that two masters should be appointed annually to The union thus effected was destined to last for more than direct and rule the craft, to inspect imtruments, and to see 200 years. At first, however, the privileges conferred on the that none should be admitted to the franchise of the City surgeons of the company appear to have excited opposition, except after attestation of their skill by good examination. for in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth years of Henry VIII. 14 years later, however, four masters of the surgeons’ guild an Act was passed allowing unlicensed persons to treat out- were sworn before the court of aldermen and they were ward sores and swellings with herbs and ointments. invested with the power of scrutiny among persons practising During the reign of Queen Mary, in the year 1555, regula- surgery and with authority to present defaults. But in the tions were drawn up relating to the examination of persons year 1410 the barbers obtained from the court of aldermen for the company’s licence to practice. These regulations confirmation of the privileges granted to them in 1376 with provided for the appointment of 13 examiners, including the the addition that they should be enjoyed "without the master and two governors. This is the origin of the present scrutiny of any person or persons of any other craft or court of examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons. trade under any name whatsoever other than the craft or In the year 1605 the company obtained a charter from trade of the said Barbers." James I. providing that the governing body of the company The was this Barbers’ Company by time assuming a two-fold should consist of four masters, two of whom were to be THE ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE. 247 surgeons, and 26 assistants. The company was given power name of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, by charter to examine barbers and surgeons and to prohibit ignorant granted by George III. In the year 1806 Parliament voted persons, or such as wilfully refused to be examined, from a sum of .615,000 and subsequently a further sum of 12,500 practising. In the year 1629 Charles I. granted a further in aid of the erection of a building for the display of the charter to the company, providing that ten freemen of the Hunterian collection.

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