Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-24
.EXECUT|0NERS AS SURGEONS
REASONS FOR EXEMPTION OF
DOCTORS FROM JURY DUTIES.
Sawbones Thought to Be Too Blood
thirsty to Sit in Capital Cases.
This Was Long Ago.
rom the British Medical Journal.

From the British Medical Journal
When our statute book was still in the
Draconian state from which 1t was re-
deemed by Sir Samuel Romilly and the
penalty of death was inflicted for the most
trivial offenses. surgeons We're exempted
from serving on juries in capital cases.
1t must not be supposed, however. that
this was because their profession was be-
lieved to make them too humane for such
work as was then imposed on jurymen.
We are sorry to say 1t was for the OPP
posite reason. They were exempted on
the same ground as butchers, whose occu-
patton. it was thought. tended to make
them too bloodthirsty. This ought not.
perhaps, to surprise us. since two or three
centuries ago executioners not infrequent-
ly performed surgical operations. This
seems to have been particularly the case
in Denmark; at any rate we have more
knowledge on this point in regard to that
country than any other.
Hangman Was a Healer.
In Janus some time ago DIR. X. Caroe
OF Copenhagen published a number of
documents bearing on the subject. The
most ancient of these bears date July a.
1879 and is license issued by Frederick
II to Anders Freimut, executioner of
Cope nhagen. granting him the right to
set bones and treat old wounds; he was
expressly forbidden to NEEDLE with recent
wounds. In 1909 1t is recorded in the
municipal archives of Copenhagen that
Gaspar. the hangman, had received four
rigsdalers for the cure of two sick chill
dren in the infir1nary
In 1888 Christian w summoned the ex-
ecutioner of Gluckstadt. in Holstein. to
examine the diseased foot of the crown
prince. In letter addressed to Ole
Worm, leading Danish physician of the
day. Henry Roster. physician 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 fit to treat the case as an ass Is to
play the Tyre" had the case in hand, and
the doctor was not asked for advice, and
although the case went steadily from bad
to worse the executioner received a fee
of 200 rigsdalerS and a large silver goblet
rewards says the doctor plaintively
which the greatest among us would not
have received had he succeeded in curing
the prince according to the rules of art
A Literary Execution.
Again, in 1851. Christian V gave a fee of
200 rigsdalers to the Copenhagen hang
man for curing the leg of a page. In
1895 Andreas Liebknecht. the Copenhagen
executioner. was In such repute for his
treatment Of disease that he wrote book
on the subject lin the name of the Holy
and ever Blessed Trinity" In 1882 Bergen
an eXecutioner in Norway, was authorized
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. Erik Peterson, who was APP
pointed public executioner at Trondhjem
in 1896. served as surgeon to an infantry
regiment in the war with Sweden and re-
tired in 1914 with the rank of surgeon
major. Frederick / of Prussia chose his
favorite hangman. Coblenz. to be his ply
sician in ordinary.
1t might be suspected that this peculiar
combination of functions had its 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 trade in human fat
and other things supposed to possess
marvellous healing properties; he may
thus have come to be credited with skill
in healing; though the association surely
represents the lowest degree to which the
surgeon has ever fallen in public esteem
and social position Compared with the
hangman, a gladiator, and even an under
taker may be considered respectable.