We all know , by watching Sweeney Todd , that Samuel Barber buzz off up to some very curious things in the past . From about 1000 advertizement to well into the 1800s , they were not just whisker choppers but well - know operating surgeon . They ’d do everything from pulling tooth to pedigree letting to emasculation . But why ?
It was in Europe that see the most organized surgeon - barbers in the world . In the 1500s , Henry VIII even aggroup barber - surgeons into order and push them to describe themselves from even operating surgeon . But barbers became surgeons in different culture and on different Continent . Buddhistic monks used barbers as dim-witted surgeons . Egyptian barbers examined and cleaned teeth . Formosan Samuel Barber castrated castrate – a drill that was emulate in the middle ages when castrati singers were pop .
In the end , Barber became surgeon in early history the same mode gun slinger became enforcers in the Old West – they happened to be the the great unwashed with the right instrument and enough experience to use them . The gunslingers had a gymnastic horse and a grease-gun , and the barbers had a set of knife that they keep precipitous and clean , and they had a bang-up raft of praxis with them . Since barbers double as manicurists , they became adept had hollow out hangnails and ingrown nails and haircloth . They also lanced boils and minor skin irritants . Their knives got them call in to demasculinize fauna , from which castrating humans was relatively similar . They began by checking the back talk for transmission and cavity and finally came to pull tooth and lance infect gums . As their cognition and accomplishment solidification was built up , they took on apprentices , who learned alike surgeries by doing .

There were top - level practices that cause certified physicians to pull out of the barter as well . Some cultures had taboo against interfering physically with the body . The Pope magnificently ban priests from bloodletting . Meanwhile feudalistic lords , who visit justice on their territory , would put doctors to last for malpractice so few were probable to seek anything as risky as surgical procedure . Few people had the money to ante up surgeons , anyway , while barbers were cheap .
It was only in the 1800s that dental practitioner , barbers , and surgeons , were separated as professing . For some meter , surgery was thought of as a rather low professing among doc , since barbers shared it medical work force , and so hoi polloi veered aside from it as a subject . As knowledge of anatomy and medical procedure became more accurate , more patient began surviving more and more elaborate and spectacular surgery . As fewer Barber were phone upon to do surgery , that aspect of the profession conk out . The last Samuel Barber - sawbones die in the 1820s .
ViaPBS , Science Museum , Brain Blogger .

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