260 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 294. 



vise those practising barbery. Early in the 

 fifteenth century the surgeons appear as a 

 distinct body, and in 1423 a College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, which had been 

 founded chiefly through the influence of 

 John Morstede, a surgeon who accompanied 

 Henry V. to Agincourt, was formally sanc- 

 tioned by the Lord Mayor, and powers 

 granted to it to examine and control per- 

 sons practising medicine and surgery in 

 the City of London. The Livery Company 

 of Barber-Surgeons was founded in 1540, 

 and its Hall in Monkswell Street is still 

 standing, and it escaped destruction in the 

 Great Fire of London. The famous picture 

 of Hans Holbein of Henry VIII. delivering 

 the Charter of the Company to the as- 

 sembled barber-surgeons is still there, where 

 until recently one might see the old theater, 

 where lessons in anatomy were read upon 

 the bodies of executed malefactors. 



Thomas Vicary (149(?)-1561), Sergeant- 

 Surgeon to the King, the first Master of this 

 Company, was a wise and honest gentle- 

 man. He held a unique position at St. 

 Bartholomew's, and there is in Holbein's 

 picture at the Barber Surgeons' Hall a 

 characteristic portrait of him. Vicary was 

 succeeded by Thomas Gale(1507-15S7), who 

 had served with the army of Henry VIII. 

 in France in 1544, and under Philip II. of 

 Spain in 1577. In his Institutions of Chirur- 

 geons there is an account of wounds made 

 by gunshot. He opposed the view that 

 they are poisoned, and gives cases to prove 

 that bullets may be left for long in the 

 body without danger. 



The Barber-Surgeons appear to have 

 borne their due share in the City pageants. 

 At one given at the Restoration, the Lord 

 Mayor and aldermen appointed that the 

 Company should provide " twelve of the 

 most grave and comlyest personages, ap- 

 pareled with velvet coats, sleeves of the 

 same, and chaynes of gold, to attend the 

 Lord Mayor on horseback." 



Mr. Edward Arris, an Alderman and 

 Barber-Surgeon, had a great desire to in- 

 crease the knowledge of Chirurgery, and to 

 this intent bequeathed to the Company a 

 sum to found lectures, in 1645, on anatomy, 

 on condition that a ' humane ' body should 

 once in every year be publicly dissected. 

 The Gale Lecture was founded by John 

 Gale a little later, in 1655, and Havers, well 

 known for his description of the canals in 

 bone, since called Haversian, was appointed 

 the first reader. The Arris and Gale Lec- 

 tures are still annually delivered in this 

 College, for when the Surgeons finally sepa- 

 rated from the Barbers in 1745 they carried 

 nothing with them but the Arris and Gale 

 bequests. The hall, library, and plate re- 

 mained the property of the Barbers, and 

 the new Companj^ of Surgeons had to make 

 a fresh start in the world. 



The Act of Parliament separating the Sur- 

 geons from the Barbers became a law in 

 1745, and a Corporation was established 

 consisting of a master, governors, and Com- 

 monalty of the Art and Science of Surgery 

 in London. 



John Eanby, one of the prime movers in 

 effecting the change, became the first Mas- 

 ter. He was Sergeant-Surgeon to George 

 II., and accompanied that monarch to 

 the battle of Dettingen in 1743. The 

 other active mover was Cheselden, Sur- 

 geon to Queen Charlotte's, to Chelsea, and 

 St. Thomas's Hospitals. The first meeting 

 of the new Company was held in the Sta- 

 tioners' Hall, July 1, 1745. Mr. Eanby, 

 as Master, occupied the chair, and Mr. 

 Cheselden and Mr. Sandford were his 

 wardens. 



Ten examiners were appointed to conduct 

 the examinations of those seeking the di- 

 ploma of the newly-constituted Company, 

 and this number is continued in the present 

 Court of Examiners. Part of their duty 

 was to examine surgeons for His Majesty's 

 army and navy, and the examination of 



