The barber surgeon

For the last week or so Mrs Talpa and I have divided our time between Edinburgh and Yorkshire, where we were visiting t'relatives.

Whilst in Edinburgh I gave a talk on one of my favourite topics, the Resurrection Men, the bodysnatchers who used to dig up freshly buried bodies for sale to the anatomy schools.

This sets the scene nicely for today's blip, a traditional barbers's shop. The red and white poles outside barbers' shops go back to the days when barbers were also surgeons, skilled in the use of razors, and expected to perform bloodletting, tooth extractions, lancing of boils and other surgical procedures. The red of the trade sign represents the blood that flowed and the white the bandages that they used.

The barber-surgeons needed to have some knowledge of anatomy and gaining it involved dissecting human bodies. The problem was where to get the bodies. So we read, in the Edinburgh Burgh Records of 1694, that the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers petitioned the Edinburgh Town Council, seeking:

"those bodies that dye in the correction house; the dead bodies of foundlings who die betwixt the tyme that they are weaned and their being put to schools or trades; also the dead bodies of such that are stiflest in the birth, which are exposed, and have nane to owne them; as also the dead bodies of such as are felo de se, which is found unquestionable self murder, and have none to own them, likewayeas the bodies of such as are put to death by sentence of the magistrates, and have nane to owne them."