Page:The Hunterian Oration,1838.djvu/21

THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 13 the patronage they received, became encroaching and presumptuous; and one, the famous Olivier le Dain, or "le Diable,” as he was more commonly called, was so distinguished as to share the Royal confidence. But they were in turn subject to annoyance from the surgeons, to whom they were offensive as rivals, and the physicians, who used them as artillery to harass the surgeons. Under a pretext of patronage, the physicians at length obtained permission to educate the barbers, and delivered lectures to them in Latin, a language of which they were ignorant. Ultimately, by an edict of Louis XIV. they were united by a regular contract with the surgeons, as subordinate or sub-assistant dressers. It was as late as the year 1745 that we dropped the honours of the connection. An Act was passed in the reign of George II. "for separating the surgeons and barbers into two distinct companies;" they had been united into one commonalty by Edward IV. Italy, the mother of the sciences, was exempt from these turmoils, the professors in all their celebrated schools employing alike their minds and hands in the cure of diseases.

We now turn toa brighter page. It was in the early part of the sixteenth century that, a native of Brussels and a pupil of Jacobus Sylvius, the discoverer of the valves of the veins, published