THE DEVELOPMENT OF THORACIC AND CARDIAC SURGERY

In the Hippocratic era medicine was characterized by the work of men who were general practitioners in the fullest sense of the word. Unfortunately in the Middle Ages the growth of the Universities and the prevalent habit of thought which favoured speculation, dogma and logical argument rather than experimental observation and research led to the development of a sort of horizontal division in medicine. Above the line was the physician who eventually became so occupied with logic and dogma, and so impressed with the dignity of his profession that he did not deign to undertake surgical procedures, but hired an inferior being, a mere craftsman, to do them for him. These craftsmen–below the horizontal line-eventually became known as barber-surgeons, and in those days surgery was rather a dubious trade. The result of this complete separation of medicine and surgery was disastrous. “Medicine without the guidance of anatomy, chemistry or the microscope became a mass of unproved theory, and surgery a rule of thumb for ignorant crafts-men. Progress in either art was almost impossible” (Parker)