Tag: barbers
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Ambroise Pare: Standard bearer for barber-surgery reform
Mildred WilsonDetroit, MI “There are five duties of surgery: to remove what is superfluous, to restore what has been dislocated, to separate what has grown together, to reunite what has been divided, and to redress the defects of nature.”—Ambroise Pare1 For centuries, barbers throughout Europe assisted monks in bloodletting. In 1163, Pope Alexander III issued…
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The barber-surgeons: Their history over the centuries
Anusha PillayRaipur, India “His pole, with pewter basins hung,Black, rotten teeth in order strung,Rang’d cups that in the window stood,Lin’d with red rags, to look like blood,Did well his threefold trade explain,Who shav’d, drew teeth, and breath’d a vein.”– The Goat without a Beard by John Gay Barbers today are primarily engaged in caring for…
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“Heard it through the grapevine”: The black barbershop as a source of health information
Joyce Balls-BerryLea DacyRochester, Minnesota, USAJames BallsSt. Louis, Missouri, USA Barbering is an ancient profession and early records indicate that barbers played a role as community leaders. Elevated almost to the role of priests or medicine men, they typically offered bloodletting, tooth extraction, cauterization, and tonsorial surgery as well as grooming.1 As medicine advanced, they did…