The Guilds

The Middle Ages witnessed the beginnings of the Guilds, among others the Guild of the Barber-Surgeons. In England where the craft of barber had been considered as honourable as that of surgeon, the Barber Surgeon's Guild was incorporated in the reign of Edward the Fourth. In 1540 this Guild joined that of the surgeons to become the United Company of Barber Surgeons, which existed as such until the mid-eighteenth century. (26) Samuel Rutter was the last toothdrawer to be a master of the Barber-Surgeons. (27)

In France the Barber-Surgeon's Guild dates from the l3th Century. It constituted the physicians, the grande bourgeoisie wearing square caps and long robes, haughtily pedantic. Of secondary importance were the petit bourgeoisie of clerical barber surgeons and finally the barbitonsores, a proletariat composed of lay barbers and outcast surgeons. (28) In the Netherlands the position was much the same. (29)

The question arises how the divergent activities of barber, surgeon and dentist were combined in the same guild. During the Middle Ages the influence and importance of the church cannot be underestimated. The artistic and cultural life was centred round the monasteries. The church spread its conception of labour and established order and method in work, which was given a certain dignity. (30) Mediaeval Papal Edicts required monks and priests to be clean shaven. Clerics were not allowed to perform bloody operations, consequently it became the duty of the layman barber, who was attached to the monastery, to officiate as the surgeon and dentist. He often had very limited practical instruction and no scientific background at all. An isolated few of these barber surgeons held medical degrees. They wished to change the view that surgery and dentistry were handcrafts and therefore not suitable subjects to be taught at universities. They wished to ally dentistry with surgery, and surgery with medicine. This eventually led to surgery becoming part of medicine, the surgeon being qualified in both fields. It follows that in Western Europe, dentistry as a part of surgery, could only be practised by people with a medical qualification. Doctores Medicinae were trained at universities; a person therefore legally qualified to practise dentistry was a fully qualified medical doctor and surgeon. A person so qualified, would not be likely to confine himself exclusively to dentistry, then considered a subsidiary subject. (31)

The emergent science suffered a setback as the field was now wide open for charlatans and quacks. While the Barber-Surgeon operated in the urban areas, the trades of barber and bloodletter were left to the blacksmith and shoemaker in the country districts. They handled the extractions, assisted by itinerant toothdrawers who visited the market places from time to time. Drums were played loudly to drown the shrieks of the victims, which could frighten prospective patients away. The itinerant toothdrawer eventually disappeared from the village scene and is today only to be found in isolated places like Morocco, plying his trade on the busy Market Square. Guy de Chauliac ( 1309-1368), himself a Barber-Surgeon, wrote in his book Chirurgia Magna that barbers and dentatores were operating on the teeth and doing extractions. Two centuries later Herman Ryff of Strasbourgh wrote a monograph in which dental afflictions were dealt with under a separate heading. (32)