27 
PATHOLOGY. 
to aft up to their deftiny, and follow up thofe purfuits 
upon which the perfection of their nature depends. As 
the fenfes would have lain dormant for ever had there 
been no external objefts to dimulate them, fo the faculties 
and virtue which characterize rational nature and civilized 
life could never have been developed, but through the 
excitement of thofe pains, wants, difficulties, and dangers, 
infeparable from human life. By no other arrangement 
could our duties, our happinefs, our mental and bodily 
perfections, have been bound togetherin one harmonious 
and confillent fyltem. Let us compare the art of medi¬ 
cine, under this afpeCt, with thofe of navigation and 
agriculture. Had man been furniffied by the Creator 
with wings, by which he could have traverfed all feas and 
oceans, fo as to fuperfede the life of ffiips, where would 
have been that hardihood of character, and ail thofe inge¬ 
nious devices which have called forth the aCtive energies 
and deep refearches of the human mind ? If, contrary to 
the aCtual inltitutions of Providence, the life of man had 
been fuftained by the fpontaneous productions of nature, 
inftead of the products of indudry, neither the faculties of 
the mind nor the powers of the body could ever have been 
developed : man would have been little fuperior to the 
brutes; his aCtive and inventive energies would have lain 
alleep for ever ; there would have been no room for the 
talents exercifed in the procuring of food, raiment, and 
Ihelter, r.or in commercial intercourfe; all the mutual and 
endearing ties and dependences of facial and civilized 
life, all trades, profeffions, arts, and fciences, whether 
miniltering to accommodation or elegance, conilituting 
man's greatelt felicity, whether as objefts of purfuit or 
enjoyment, would have been unknown and untafted. It 
is obvious that this reafoning, being founded on a general 
law of nature, mud apply equally to medicine. In a pro¬ 
bationary exiftence, it was neceffary that man ffiould be 
tried, not only by pain and ficknefs, but by the difficul¬ 
ties of remedying them, as exercifes of virtue and inge¬ 
nuity. Why ffiould the road to medical relief lie through 
fewer and (lighter druggies and dangers, than thofe of 
navigation and agriculture ? But the fubjeCt is more 
concifely and emphatically illudrated by the philofophical 
poet, than by any amplitude of illudration, or farther 
multiplicity of words which we could employ : 
.-Pater ipfecolendi (medendi), 
Haud facilem efle viam voluit, primuique per artem, 
Movitagros, (ggros,) curis acuens mortalia corda. 
We ffiall conclude our view of the general date of pa¬ 
thology in the lixteenth century, with fome account of the 
violent difputes which prevailed in France, on the prero¬ 
gatives of the medical art over thofe of furgery, but par¬ 
ticularly on theconteded privileges of the furgeons. Al¬ 
though the documents relative to this fubjeft have been 
partly printed, or have at lead not been withheld from the 
inlpeftion of hidorians, yet no part of medical hidory has 
been condufted with more partiality, and lei's regard to 
truth, by both parties. The author of the work entitled 
“Recherches furl’Origine et la Progres de la Chirurgie en 
France” is guilty of the grolfed mifrepreferitation, though 
this book has by fome been afcribed to Franc. Quefnay. 
Pafquier, in his “Recherches de la France,” fol. Paris, 
1620, defervesmuch more credit; and, therefore, the mod 
important points relative to that extraordinary difpute 
are here briefly collefted from his more authentic 
Aatement. And this alfo will remind the reader of flmilar 
difputes in our own country, and about the fame time : 
for, it has been already hinted, that, during great part of 
the 16th century, furgery was praftifed indilcriminately 
by barbers, farriers, and fow-gelders. We know that 
barbers and furgeons continued for 200 years after to be 
incorporated in one company, both in London and Paris. 
d In Holland and fome parts of Germany, we are told, that, 
even to this day, barbers exercife the razor and lancet 
alternately. 
The furgeons of Paris had, fince the time of Lanfranc, 
(1295), formed a didinft body, called the College of St. 
C6me ; and they obtained additional and refpeftable pri¬ 
vileges from Philip the Fair, in 1311, which entitled them 
to equal rank with the members of the medical faculty; 
hence they could not bear the idea that barbers ffiould 
ul’urp the right of bleeding, applying pladers,and treating 
external injuries and ulcers. In confequence of this en¬ 
croachment, the furgeons, in 14.25, obtained an aft or 
arret of the parliament of Paris, by which the performance 
of chirurgical operations was prohibited to the barbers, 
while they were permitted to drel’s wounds, and extirpate 
corns by the knife. But the phyflcians embraced the 
caufe of the barbers, and indrufted them in the practice 
of furgery, with a view to take revenge on the furgeons, 
who, it was affirmed, had ufurped medical privileges. 
The complaint of grievances which the furgeons, on this 
occaflon, laid before the faculty, in the years 14.91 and 
1494., were not attended with any efl'eft; and the members 
of the faculty were even permitted to deliver anatomical 
leftures to barbers in the French language. The furgeons 
again, though in vain, reprefented to the faculty, that 
they afted contrary to the laws made by themfelves, by 
permitting their members to indraft barbers' in the 
knowledge of anatomy, and this in their native language. 
However, no other redrefs could be obtained, but that of 
licenftng the furgeons to undertake public difleftions, and 
of granting them a certain rank above the barbers, for 
which they paid lixty folidos annually to the treafurer of 
the faculty. This event took place in the year 1502 ; and 
in 1505 the furgeons renewed their application in the 
charafter of fcholars or pupils to the faculty, whom they 
intreated to confirm their privileges; but Helin, the 
fenior of that body, fent them the difcouraging anfwer, 
that their pretended rights or immunities had been ac¬ 
quired by furreptitious means. 
In the fame year, the phylicians of Paris, as Pafquier 
exprefles himfelf, “ palled the Rubicon,” and entered into 
a formal contraft with the barbers, who, on account of 
their implicit obedience, were patronized in preference to 
the furgeons. The barbers were confequently, in con¬ 
tempt of the furgeons, pronounced to be “ the true fcho¬ 
lars of the faculty:” they were matriculated under that 
name; but a promife was exafte'd from them, according 
to which they were not allowed to adminider internal 
medicines, without confulting, in every cafe,a member of 
the medical faculty; they farther agreed to undergo an 
examination, previous to their commencing bufinefs as 
maders. After that period, the barbers were no longer 
called Barbitovfores, the complaifmt faculty having con¬ 
ferred on them the more honourable title of Chiriirgici a. 
Tonjtrina, or TonJ'o'res Chirurgici. A few days after this 
change, the faculty proceeded to fuch extremities as to 
profecute the furgeons in a court of law, becaufe they had 
received information, that leveral furgeons had prefcribed 
internal remedies without the previous advice of a 
phyfician. 
At that time, probabty, no man of genius and aftivity 
prefded over the Coliege of St. Come ; for no fooner was 
Stephen Barat elefted prefident of that college, than the 
fituation of affairs was thoroughly changed. In the year 
1515, he urged the faculty to exempt the fociety of fur¬ 
geons from the oppreffive tax they were obliged to pay an¬ 
nually, and not to compel them to attend the leftures 
given by members of the faculty. As Barat addrefl'ed 
himfelf to the whole univerfity, and as old Helin, the mod 
zealous antagonid of the furgeons, died in the fame year, 
this remondrance had the deiiredefleft. The univerfity 
ilfued a decree, by which the furgeons of Paris were no¬ 
minated Scholu/tici, or perpetual fcholars of the faculty. 
But diil greater immunities were granted to the furgeons 
in 1545, by the good offices of William Vavafleur, principal 
furgeon at the court of Francis I. He effefted a complete 
feparaticn of the barbers from the furgeons; and at the 
fame timeobtained a decree, in conformity to which every 
mafler of the chirurgical art, if he wiffied to obtain the 
privilege 
