جراحان کشتی‌های شرکت هند شرقی هلند: تجارت و پیشرفت پزشکی در قرن هجدهم

guild was amalgamated with the Fellowship of Surgeons in 1540 (Act of Union) under a charter granted by Henry VIII. From then on, the London surgeons were legally restricted to the practice of surgery, whilst in the countryside, surgeons could practise more generally, together with apothecaries, empirics, and physicians. 28 In fact, according to English common law, anyone could practise medicine as long as the patient consented. 29 In 1563, Elizabeth I's Statute of Artificers and Apprentices laid down that the apprentices must be under twenty-one years of age on entry, must serve for seven years, and must have attained the age of twenty-four before they could be licensed. 30 Thus, after 1563, the age upon entry of an average apprentice was seventeen, prior to which he attended his local grammar school, or one of the few remaining schools associated with the churches in London. Most of the apprentice's instruction was practical, for he assisted his master in bleeding, administering clysters, applying ointments or splints, suturing wounds, removing foreign bodies, and, on rare and exciting occasions, he might help to hold a limb or a patient down during an amputation. His theoretical knowledge depended largely on himself, for it came principally from books. Upon completion of his seven years of study, the London apprentice was brought to the hall by his master, who had to testify to his faithful service, to be examined on anatomy and surgery. 31 For surgeons and surgery things started to change in the course of the fourteenth century. It was in France that surgeons were for the first time formally appreciated by royal favour. A royal decree of 1383 declared that 'the king's first barber and valet' was to be the head of the barbers and surgeons of the entire kingdom. Thus, the rise of surgical standing in northern Europe started in France. Paris developed into the leading centre for the study of surgery; surgery was entirely in French hands until far into the eighteenth century. Surgery could be properly studied at the Hôtel Dieu, although still outside the purlieus of the university of Paris. 32 It was there that ligature (the clamping off of the major vessels and arteries before amputation) and sewing (of skin flaps) had already become routine medical practice by the end of the sixteenth century as opposed to cauterisation (using a hot iron or boiling oil). Among those French surgeons who bridged the transition from classical to modern surgery, several stood out. First, there was Guy de Chauliac (1300-1368), whose Chirurgia Magna (1363) was often reprinted, for example, four times in the Netherlands alone between 1509 and 1646, and which remained a classic work on surgery until well into the seventeenth century. Although still written in the tradition of the classics -in fact, Galen's ideas were Chauliac's parameters -and although not based on any anatomical dissections by the author himself, Chirurgia Magna was based on observation and experience. 33 Meanwhile, Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), the primus inter pares of the empirically minded surgeons, came to Paris in 1529 as a barber's apprentice, at the age of nineteen. He received his early surgical training as a dresser at the Hôtel Dieu. The Ship's Surgeons In The Employ Of The Dutch East India Company Were Responsible For The Healthcare On Board The Ships And In The Hospitals Founded By The Company In A Vast Geographical Area Expanding From South Africa To Japan. They Were Not Highly Regarded By Their Contemporaries, Who Criticised Them For Being Little More Than Barbers Or Loblolly Boys. The Author Of This Fascinating Study Paints The True Picture Of The Profession, Drawing On Her Analysis Of Data For Some 3,000 Ship's Surgeons In The Company's Service, And Including The Recruitment Policy Of The Company, The Career Of The Surgeons, Their Geographical Origins, Their Life Expectancy, To Mention But A Few. The Results Of Her Analysis, Based On Many Hitherto Unpublished Sources, Show This Negative Image To Be A Myth. The Surgeons Were, As A Rule, Fairly Well Educated According To The Standards Of Their Time. The Tragic Fact That They Were Confronted With Diseases Unknown In Europe And Incurable At The Time Contributed To The Sailors' And The Society's Dismissive Attitude To Their Skills.--publisher's Description. Introduction: Coping With A Black Legend -- The Surgeon's Tale: The Development Of Surgery -- The World Of The East India Company Surgeon -- The Medical Service Of The Dutch East India Company -- The Geographic Origin Of The Company's Surgeons -- The Career Of The Company Surgeons -- 'great Expectations'! -- Conclusion: The Surgeon's Legacy. Iris Bruijn. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. During the eighteenth century, the surgeons of ships employed by the Dutch East India Company were responsible not only for the health of sailors on board, but also of those in company hospitals throughout a vast geographical empire that extended from South Africa to Japan. Regarded by their contemporaries as little more than illiterate and opportunistic barbers, these early medical practitioners engaged in a complex working life as varied as the geographical terrain they covered. This volume offers a fascinating exploration of the reality of their profession, drawing on data and firsthand accounts from over 3,000 of the surgeons in the companys service, and spanning topics as diverse as the recruitment policy of the company, the career trajectory of the surgeons in its employ, their geographical origins, and their life expectancy. Demonstrating that the image of these surgeons as uneducated apprentices is little more than a myth, Iris Bruijn portrays them more appropriately as fairly well-educated men subject to the risks of life at sea, including incurable diseases otherwise unknown in their European homeland. A powerful account of the working lives of surgeons in the service of the Dutch East India Company, offering graphic insights into their training and practice on board the Company's ships, against the backdrop of the general healthcare standards of the period.