Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1908-12-19
OLDEN DAY SURGEONS
They Were Exempt From Jury
Duty In Capital Cases.
IN A CLASS WITH BUTCHERS
rhouoht to Be Too Bloodthlrsty TO
Calmly Pass on the Taking OF Hu-
man Life Executioners Performed
Operations and Acted as Doctors


Calmly Pass on the Taking OF Hu.
man Life Executioners Performed
onerations and Acted as Doctors.
When Great Britain's statute DOCK
was still in the Draconian state from
which If was redeemed by Sir Samuel
Romilly and the penalty of death was
inflicted for the most trivial ohenses'
surgeons were exempted from serving
on iuries in capital cases.
It must not be supposed, however,
that this was because their profession
was believed to make them too humane
for sucb work as was then imposed on
iurymen. We are sorry to say II was
for the opposite reason. They were eA-
empted ON the same ground as butch
ers. whose occupation, it was thought
tended to make them too bloodthlrsty'
This ought not perhaps surprise us,
since two or three centuries ago eA-
ecutioners not infreQuently performed
surgical operations. This seems 10
have been particularly the case in Den
mark. At any rate, we have more
knowledge on this point In regard 10
that country than any other.
In Janus some time ago DR.. Il. Caroe
of Copenhagen published a number OF
documents bearing on the subject. The
most ancient of these bears date July
"a. 1870. and Is a license issued by
Frederick IL. TO Anders Freimut, ex-
ecutioner Of Copenhagen, granting MIN
the right to set bones and treat old
wounds. He was expressly forbidden
TO NEEDLE with recent wounds. In
1909 II Is recorded in the municipal
archives of Copenhagen that Gaspar,
the hangman. had received four rigs
dalers for the cure of two sick chill
dren in the infirmary.
In 1888 Christian ". summoned the
executioner Of Gluckstadt, in Holstein,
to examine the diseased foot or the
crown prince In letter addressed to
Ole Worm. a leading Danish physi-
elan Of the day, Henry Roster, physi-
clan in ordinary to the king, complains
bitterly of the slight thus put upon
him. He says that for two whole
months the hangman, "who is as mt 10
treat the case rs an ass is to play the
lvre" had the case in hand, and the
doctor was not asked for advice, ana,
although the case went steadily from
bad to worse. the eXecutioner received
fee Of 200 rigsdalers and large
silver gOblet-"rewards," says the doc
for plaintively, (which the greatest
among us would not have received
had be succeeded in curing the prince
according to the rules of art"
Again. in 1851. Christian " gave
fee Of 200 rigsdalers to the Copen-
hagen hangman for curing the leg OF
PAGE In 1895 Andreas Liebknecht
the Copenhagen executioner. was IN
such repute or his treatment of dis
ease that he wrote a book on the
subject 'in the name of the holy and
ever blessed Trinity" In 1882 Bergen
an eyecutioner in Norway, was au-
thorized by royal decree to practice
surgery.
Even up to the early years OF the
nineteenth century this extraordinary
association of surgery with the last
penalty Of the law continued. Elk
Peterson. who was appointed public
executioner at Trondhjem in 1876,
served as surgeon to an infantry regi-
ment in the war with Sweden and re-
tired in 1914 with the rank Of surgeon
major. Frederick l. Of Prussia chose
his favorite hangman, Coblenz, to be
his physician in ordinary
1t might be suspected that this pc
culiar combination Of functions had
It's origin in a Satirical view Of the art
of healing, but in the records we have
quoted we can trace nothing Of the
kind. Perhaps the executioner drove
a trade in human fat and other things
supposed to possess marvellous heal
ing properties. He may thus have
come to be credited with skill in heal
ing, though the association surely rep
resents the lowest degree to which the
surgeon has ever fallen in public es-
| TEEN and social position. Compared
with the hangman. a gladiator and
| even an undertaken may be considered
respectable British Medical Journal.