The Historical Development of the Resident Pupil System

THERE does not seem at first sight to be much connection between a mediaeval Council of the Church, with the cardinal archbishops magnificent in their scarlet robes, and the resident pupil of the Royal Victoria Hospital in his plain white coat: and yet, if a great council had not met at Tours in the year 1163, resident pupils might not today be strolling down the long corridor of our Hospital. This is but another example of that fascinating chain of circumstances which we are accustomed to call cause and effect. Before the twelfth century, the practice of surgery, and also that of medicine, was under the control of the clergy. The barbers were in close alliance with the clergy, and, as they were permitted to assist the monks in minor surgical operations , they must have acquired a certain degree of proficiency. The Council of Tours, "considering that the shedding of blood was incompatible with the holy office of the clergy," forbade them to interfere in any matter of surgery; therefore they were obliged to abandon all operative interference: while continuing to practise the "Ars Medendi," the healing art of medicine. "No doubt, " says Young, "the Edict of Tours was hailed with joy by the barbers, who thus seized the opportunity of practising as surgeons on their own account." This is shown by an early fourteenth century regulation concerning venesection, which enjoined, in the year 1307: that "no barbers shall be so bold as to put blood in their windows, in view of the folk: but let them have it privily carried into the Thames, under pain of paying two shillings"-an effort to curb medical advertising as it existed six hundred years ago. Closely connected with the practice of venesection were the "Bleeding Calendars," of which Osler gives a description in his "Incunabula Medica." On these calendars was a figure of a bleeding man, with twenty-four veins marked. The domination of the twelve signs of the Zodiac was also given: illustrating "two popular mediaeval beliefs of extraordinary tenacity"; first, that certain days were lucky or unlucky; and, second, that heavenly influences controlled the bodily functions. Forty-six of these ''Bleeding Calendars" were known before 1480, and one hundred before 1501. "From the age of Elizabeth," says Trevelyan, "apprenticeship was the key to the national life. It was controlled on a uniform national pattern for town and country. No man could …