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THE SURGEON AS MEDICAL PRACTITIONER: AN HISTORICAL APPRECIATION OF THE ROLE OF SURGERY IN THE CORPUS MEDICUM
Author(s) -
Richardson J. P.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1980.tb04193.x
Subject(s) - medicine , feudalism , context (archaeology) , humanism , medical profession , history of medicine , classics , surgery , law , medical education , history , psychiatry , archaeology , politics , political science
The present‐day division between surgery and medicine, and between surgeons and physicians, is examined in its historical context. It is contended that from the earliest times up to the thirteenth century of the Christian era in Western Europe such a division was not recognized, and that the separation which then occurred was based, not in nature, but in clerical, feudal, and humanistic conceits. Five centuries then elapsed, up to the turn of the eighteenth, before surgery was able to regain public recognition as a grave, honourable, and scholarly profession.