Bizarre and Bloody Practices of Medieval Barbers
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 13
alanhyt79
When I was in nursing school, we were studying surgical nursing and I was lucky enough to get in to watch the most respected, local gastrointestinal surgeon remove my patient's entire large intestine and connect the end of his small intestine to a stoma located on his abdomen. The last step was to remove the anus and seal that wound with stitches since he wouldn't need it any longer. When the surgeon examined the perianal area, he said, This has not been shaved. The orangey-brown of the povidone-iodine solution used to sterilize the skin was there, but hairs were sticking up and they were obvious. One of the OR nurses said, I'm sorry, doctor. That was my fault. I can do it right now. The surgeon said, No, I'll do it myself. Just bring me the razor. He lathered up the area and began shaving off the hairs. I'll never forget what he said next, because I cracked up and almost fell over. He said, This reminds me of the days of the Barber Surgeons. Only a couple of us in the theater got the joke. The surgeon was well-pleased with us.
I saw the thumbnail for this video and remembered that experience. I remember being glad that I had been fascinated and even horrified by primitive medicine and surgery (turned out to consist mostly of superstitious nonsense that tended to cause more harm, so of course I read up on it. I ended up hating on Galen and his followers for the harm they did over a thousand years with their laudable pus theory. They'd beat up anyone who dared question the great Galen and insist that poultices of animal dung be placed on wounds after surgery so that pus can form and thus the wound can heal. A wound cannot heal without the formation of pus! they claimed, those idiots. How many people died because of them? It's hard to say.
IMO, Ambroise Pare was one of the most fascinating characters of the barber surgeons. His writings and illustrations, especially the monsters, are incredible and often fanciful. There should be movies made about Ambroise Pare.
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When I was in nursing school, we were studying surgical nursing and I was lucky enough to get in to watch the most respected, local gastrointestinal surgeon remove my patient's entire large intestine and connect the end of his small intestine to a stoma located on his abdomen. The last step was to remove the anus and seal that wound with stitches since he wouldn't need it any longer. When the surgeon examined the perianal area, he said, This has not been shaved. The orangey-brown of the povidone-iodine solution used to sterilize the skin was there, but hairs were sticking up and they were obvious. One of the OR nurses said, I'm sorry, doctor. That was my fault. I can do it right now. The surgeon said, No, I'll do it myself. Just bring me the razor. He lathered up the area and began shaving off the hairs. I'll never forget what he said next, because I cracked up and almost fell over. He said, This reminds me of the days of the Barber Surgeons. Only a couple of us in the theater got the joke. The surgeon was well-pleased with us.
I saw the thumbnail for this video and remembered that experience. I remember being glad that I had been fascinated and even horrified by primitive medicine and surgery (turned out to consist mostly of superstitious nonsense that tended to cause more harm, so of course I read up on it. I ended up hating on Galen and his followers for the harm they did over a thousand years with their laudable pus theory. They'd beat up anyone who dared question the great Galen and insist that poultices of animal dung be placed on wounds after surgery so that pus can form and thus the wound can heal. A wound cannot heal without the formation of pus! they claimed, those idiots. How many people died because of them? It's hard to say.
IMO, Ambroise Pare was one of the most fascinating characters of the barber surgeons. His writings and illustrations, especially the monsters, are incredible and often fanciful. There should be movies made about Ambroise Pare.
reply
Big
Well there was some interesting things here but I already had a good idea what the barber surgeon did.
Did you ever wonder haw the barbershop quartet came about. When the barber was carrying out surgery it could get quite noisy, because of the amount of pain involved for the patient and the lack of painkillers not given to the said patient. So the barber would leave out sheet music and musical instruments for his other customers so that their singing and music playing would drown out the patients cries. From this came the barbershop quartet. Though having heard four men dress as barbers from the start of the 20th century singing in close harmony some of use prefare the screams.
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Well there was some interesting things here but I already had a good idea what the barber surgeon did.
Did you ever wonder haw the barbershop quartet came about. When the barber was carrying out surgery it could get quite noisy, because of the amount of pain involved for the patient and the lack of painkillers not given to the said patient. So the barber would leave out sheet music and musical instruments for his other customers so that their singing and music playing would drown out the patients cries. From this came the barbershop quartet. Though having heard four men dress as barbers from the start of the 20th century singing in close harmony some of use prefare the screams.
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angel
Anthropologist here it would also fall to Barber surgeons before the invention of widespread European universities to perform trapanning to relieve migraines or other blows to the Head where the skull was cracking in and causing the brain to swell. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies have been recovered which show that people survived 20 to 40 years after a trappanning and would have kept a piece of leather over the open wound to keep things out of their skull. Surviving 40 years with a hole in your head is some pretty Advanced s for what we think of as the dark ages.
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Anthropologist here it would also fall to Barber surgeons before the invention of widespread European universities to perform trapanning to relieve migraines or other blows to the Head where the skull was cracking in and causing the brain to swell. Hundreds if not thousands of bodies have been recovered which show that people survived 20 to 40 years after a trappanning and would have kept a piece of leather over the open wound to keep things out of their skull. Surviving 40 years with a hole in your head is some pretty Advanced s for what we think of as the dark ages.
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Lauren
As much as I love the narration, the way he pronounces 'salve' had me in stiches - it sounded like 'sav'. Oh yes siree, I 100%, treatment of any condition with 'sav'(ignon blanc) sounds perfect to me!
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As much as I love the narration, the way he pronounces 'salve' had me in stiches - it sounded like 'sav'. Oh yes siree, I 100%, treatment of any condition with 'sav'(ignon blanc) sounds perfect to me!
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Sarah
I dont get how humans lost all the herbal rememdies we had for thousands of years before middle ages. oh yeah, they burned the all people that knew about them at the stake.
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I dont get how humans lost all the herbal rememdies we had for thousands of years before middle ages. oh yeah, they burned the all people that knew about them at the stake.
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J. C.
Hemlock is deadly toxic 4 sure. However in small doses Hemlock is used for bronchitis, whooping cough, asthma, arthritis, as well as other conditions.
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Hemlock is deadly toxic 4 sure. However in small doses Hemlock is used for bronchitis, whooping cough, asthma, arthritis, as well as other conditions.
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Spanky
Stop hating on them. They did the best they could with the knowledge they had. They blazed the trail for modern medicine, dentistry, and cosmetology.
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Stop hating on them. They did the best they could with the knowledge they had. They blazed the trail for modern medicine, dentistry, and cosmetology.
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Little
Middle ages: blood letting is a magical cure-all.
2022: antidepressants are a magical cure-all.
We haven't made that much progress have we.
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Middle ages: blood letting is a magical cure-all.
2022: antidepressants are a magical cure-all.
We haven't made that much progress have we.
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balk
uh blood letting reduces blood pressure & thins thick blood, so it does relieve imflamation, which can make you really sick, ok
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uh blood letting reduces blood pressure & thins thick blood, so it does relieve imflamation, which can make you really sick, ok
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Chromica
Rose does indeed have properties useful for humans, I read about in my herb index from my grandmother. Also good for eczema
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Rose does indeed have properties useful for humans, I read about in my herb index from my grandmother. Also good for eczema
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education
This narration is HILARIOUS! Anything other than a second bullet would have felt better in a gunshot wound
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This narration is HILARIOUS! Anything other than a second bullet would have felt better in a gunshot wound
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Rachel
Medieval marriage practices? Like typical age, dating/courting practices, whatever was considered weird
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Medieval marriage practices? Like typical age, dating/courting practices, whatever was considered weird
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Fancy
Did people in the Middle Ages wear pointy toe shoes? Are there other weird myths about this time period?
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Did people in the Middle Ages wear pointy toe shoes? Are there other weird myths about this time period?
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