Earlier, as I may have mentioned before, I took a trip to Paris to meet up with a good friend from high school. Paris blew me away, and I was pretty sure that no other place in the world could be as awe-inspiring or have such a profound effect on me. And then our class took a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, and once again I was blown away. The city was so beautiful. I loved the brick walkways, the dark buildings, the hilly terrain that brought you to wonderful castles perched upon picturesque cliffs. And just outside the city, the gorgeous fields and miles of green, rolling hills convinced me that Scotland might even be on par with Paris. To say that I loved Edinburgh would be a vast understatement. But I can’t just go on and on about the beauty of the city, right? Our class obviously chose to visit Edinburgh for a reason.
We have been studying advances in Victorian surgery, and also in medicine in general. Edinburgh, especially in the 19th century, was a world leader in many facets of academia, medicine being one of the disciplines that flourished above all. Among the influential names that we have been studying are James Young Simpson, the pioneer of chloroform as an anesthetic, and Joseph Lister, the surgeon that first used carbolic acid as an antiseptic. Both of these men worked in Edinburgh during important stages of their lives, and while we were there we learned a great deal about both of them.
Our class visited both the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians while we were in Edinburgh. We had guided tours of both colleges, and at both, jokes were made about rivalries between the two. Traditionally, surgeons were definitely lower on the medicinal totem pole than physicians. For a long time, as anyone who listened to my rap would know, physicians and not surgeons had to go to college to learn about medicine. But as advances in surgery were made, such as the introductions of anesthetics and antisepsis, the power balance (to make it sound more epic) between surgeons and physicians started to equalize. For this reason, and because physicians wanted to retain their superior status as surgeons were making a name for themselves, there used to be a bit of tension between the two professions, and between the two colleges. Now, however, it’s referenced as more of a joke.
There was an interesting comparison to be made between the two colleges. At the Royal College of Surgeons, the observables were all objects, be them surgical instruments, skeletal components, or jars containing various internal organs. At the Royal College of Physicians, the observables were massive collections of books written by influential characters at different times throughout history. While the Royal College of Surgeons had a collection of twisted spinal columns that illustrated a certain medical condition, the Royal College of Physicians had fist edition copies of some of Isaac Newton’s first works. This sort of illustrated the difference between surgeons and physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries: Surgeons were doers, physicians were thinkers. It seemed like surgery was more about practice, while being a physician was more about academia. Though surgeons eventually put a greater stress on education, straying away from mere apprenticeship and entering the classroom, physicians still retained their tradition of superior academic endeavor. I do, however, believe that surgeons in the 19th century started to gain an edge on the other medical professionals in practical application. They slowly increased their repertoires to include more than just amputation, broke with the barbers, and started fighting infection and fixing ailments. Surgeons were able to actually do something for their patients, while physicians, though they were beginning to concern themselves more with what was going on inside the body and not just what came out of it, still lagged behind. Perhaps, when we venture more into germ theory, we will see whether surgeons ever surpassed physicians as the dominant medical professional.
I especially liked touring the Royal College of Physicians, partly because the building was beautiful, and partly because our guide was extremely interesting. I think the college made such an impression on me, I might devote a separate blog just to talking about what I learned there, and some of the corky things that were either found or brought up by our guide. So I’ll sign off now and follow up with that later. Later.
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