A Book About Doctors

by John Cordy Jeaffreson

The work affords some valuable insight into the social status of the profession in the sixteenth century.

In his dedicatory letter to Master Reginald Scot, Esquire, the author says that phlebotomy "is greatly abused by vagabund horse-leaches and travailing tinkers, who find work almost in every village through whom it comes (having in truth neither knowledge, nor witte, nor honesty), the sober practitioner and cunning chirurgian liveth basely, is despised, and accounted a very abject amongst the vulgar sort." Of the medical skill of Sir Thomas Eliot, and Drs. Bulleyn, Turner, Penié, and Coldwel, the author speaks in terms of warm eulogy; but as for the tinkers aforementioned, he would regard them as murderers, and "truss them up at Tyborne."

Gyer, who indulges in continual reference to the "Schola Salerni," makes the following contribution to the printed metrical literature on Venesection:—

"Certaine very old English verses, concerning the veines and letting of bloud, taken out of a very auncient paper book of Phisicke notes:—

"Ye maisters that usen bloud-letting,
And therewith getten your living;
Here may you learn wisdome good,
In what place ye shall let bloud.
For man, in woman, or in child,
For evils that he wood and wild.
There beene veynes thirty-and-two,
For wile is many, that must he undo.
Sixteene in the head full right,
And sixteene beneath I you plight.
In what place they shall be found,
I shall you tell in what stound.
Beside the eares there beene two,
That on a child mote beene undoe;
To keep his head from evil turning
And from the scale withouten letting.
And two at the temples must bleede,
For stopping and aking I reede;
And one is in the mid forehead,
For Lepry or for sawcefleme that mote bleede.
Above the nose forsooth is one,
That for the frensie mote be undone.
Also when the eien been sore,
For the red gowt evermore.
And two other be at the eien end.
If thy bleeden them to amend.
And the arch that comes thorow smoking,
I you tell withouten leasing.
And at the whole of the throat, there beene two,
That Lepry and straight breath will undoo.
In the lips foure there beene,
Able to bleede I tell it be deene,
Two beneath, and above also
I tell thee there beene two.
For soreness of the mouth to bleede,
When it is flawne as I thee reede.
And two in the tongue withouten lie,
Mote bleede for the quinancie.
And when the tongue is aught aking,
For all manner of swelling.
Now have I tolde of certaine,
That longer for the head I weene,
And of as many I will say,
That else where there beene in fay.
In every arme there beene fife,
Full good to blede for man and wife,
Cephalica is one I wis,
The head veyne he cleaped is,
The body above and the head;
He cleanseth for evil and qued.
In the bought of the arme also,
An order there must he undoo;
Basilica his name is,
Lowest he sitteth there y wis;
Forsooth he cleanseth the liver aright,
And all other members beneath I twight.
The middle is between the two,
Corall he is clipped also
That veine cleanseth withouten doubt;
Above and beneath, within and without.
For Basilica that I of told,
One braunched veine ety up full bold,
To the thomb goeth that one braunch;
The cardiacle he wil staunch,
That there braunch full right goeth,
To the little finger withouten oth;
Saluatell is his name,
He is a veine of noble fame;
There is no veine that cleanseth so clene,
The stopping of the liver and splene.
Above the knuckles of the feet,
With two veines may thou meet,
Within sitteth Domestica,
And without Saluatica.
. . . . .
All the veines thee have I told,
That cleanseth man both yong and old.
If thou use them at thy need,
These foresaid evils they dare not dread;
So that our Lord be them helping,
That all hath in his governing.
So mote it be, so say all wee,
Amen, amen, for charitee."

To bleed on May-day is still the custom with ignorant people in a few remote districts. The system of vernal minutions probably arose from that tendency in most men to repeat an act (simply because they have done it once) until it has become a habit, and then superstitiously to persevere in the habit, simply because it is a habit. How many aged people read certain antiquated journals, as they wear exploded garments, for no other reason than that they read the same sort of literature, and wore the same sort of habiliments, when young. To miss for once the performance of a periodically recurring duty, and so to break a series of achievements, would worry many persons, as the intermitted post caused Dr. Johnson discomfort till he had returned and touched it. As early as the sixteenth century, we have Gyer combating the folly of people having recourse to periodic venesections. "There cometh to my minde," he says, "a common opinion among the ignorant people, which do certainly beleeve that, if any person be let bloud one yere, he must be let bloud every yere, or else he is (I cannot tell, nor they neither) in how great danger. Which fonde opinion of theirs, whereof soever the same sprong first, it is no more like to be true, than if I should say: when a man hath received a great wound by chaunce in any part of his body, whereby he loseth much bloud; yet after it is healed, he must needs have the like wounde againe there the next yeare, to avoid as much bloud, or els he is in daunger of great sickness, yea, and also in hazard to lose his life."

The practitioners of phlebotomy, and the fees paid for the operation, have differed widely. In the middle of the last century a woman used the lancet with great benefit to her own pocket, if not to her patients, in Marshland, in the county of Norfolk. What her charge was is unknown, probably, however, only a few pence. A distinguished personage of the same period (Lord Radnor) had a great fondness for letting the blood (at the point of an amicable lancet—not a hostile sword) of his friends. But his Lordship, far from accepting a fee, was willing to remunerate those who had the courage to submit to his surgical care. Lord Chesterfield, wanting an additional vote for a coming division in the House of Peers, called on Lord Radnor, and, after a little introductory conversation, complained of a distressing headache.

"You ought to lose blood then," said Lord Radnor.

"Gad—do you indeed think so? Then, my dear lord, do add to the service of your advice by performing the operation. I know you are a most skilful surgeon."

Delighted at the compliment, Lord Radnor in a trice pulled out his lancet-case, and opened a vein in his friend's arm.