Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1909-02-16
OLDEN DAY SURGEONS
They Were Exempt From Jur,
Duty In Capital Cases.
IN A CLASS WITH BUTCHERS
Thought to Be Too RIoodthirsty &c
Calmly Pass on the Taking of HUI
man Life Executioners Performed
Operations and Acted as Doctors.


When Great Britain's statute book
was still in the Draconian state from
which it was redeemed by Sir Samuel
Romilly and the penalty of death was
inflicted for the most trivial offenses,
surgeons were exempted from serving
on juries in capital cases.
1t must not be supposed, however,
that this was because their profession
was believed to make them too humane
for such work as was then imposed on
jurymen. We are sorry to say 1t was
for the opposite reason. They were ex-
empted on the same ground as butch
ers, whose occupation, it was thought,
tended to make them too bloodthirsty.
This ought not perhaps surprise US,
since two or three centuries ago ex-
ecutioners not infrequently performed
surgical operations. This seems TO
have been particularly the case in Den
mark. At any rate, we have more
knowledge ON this point in regard to
that country than any other.
In Janus some time ago DR.. X. Caroe
of Copenhagen published number of
documents bearing on the subject. The
most ancient of these bears date July
"a, 1879, and IS a license issued by
Frederick III. to Anders Freimut, ex-
ecutioner Of Copenhagen, granting him
the right to set bones and treat old
wounds. He was expressly forbidden
to NEEDLE with recent wounds. In
1909 it 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 infrmary
In 1858 Christian " summoned the
executioner of Gluckstadt, in Holstein,
to examine the diseased foot of the
crown prince. In letter addressed to
Ole Worm. a leading Danish physi-
clan 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 cit 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 doc
tor plaintiyely, (which the greatest
among us would not have received |
had he succeeded in curing ne prince
according to the rules of art"
Again, in 1851. Christian V. gave Il
fee of 200 rigsdalers to the Copen-
hagen hangman for curing the leg of
a page In 1895 Andreas I4iebknecht,
the Copenhagen executioner. was in
such repute or his treatment Of dis
ease that he wrote a book on the
subject Sin the name of the holy and
ever blessed Trinity" In 1882 Bergen.
an executioner In Norway, was au-
by royal decree to practice
Even up to the early years of the
century this extraordinary
association Of surgery with the last
penalty of the law continued. Erik
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 |. of Prussia chose
bis favorite hangman, Coblenz, to be
his physician In ordinary.
1t might be suspected that this pc
ruliar 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
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
spectable.-British Medical Journal.