ABSTRACT
Pierre Franco was obviously a bold surgeon who carried out a wide range of operative procedures known at that time. Thomas Vicary became the first Master of the Barber-surgeons Company, which decreed that surgeons should no longer act as barbers and that barbers should restrict their surgery to dental extractions. The establishment of the Company of Barber-surgeons was typical of a move throughout Western Europe at about this time to organise surgeons into professional bodies and to distinguish them from the quacks, barbers, itinerant tooth-drawers and charlatans that provided much of the surgical care of former times. If the 17th century was unremarkable in regard to significant surgical progress, it is important to note that major advances were made with knowledge of the functions of the body. Indeed, the 16th century may be said to have heralded the renaissance of anatomy, whereas the 17th century saw the beginnings of modern physiological knowledge.
