The
barber surgeon was one of the most common
medical practitioners of
medieval Europe – generally charged with looking after
soldiers during or after a
battle. In this era,
surgery was not generally conducted by physicians, but by
barbers (who of course had a sharp-bladed
razor as an indispensable tool of their profession). In the Middle Ages in Europe barbers would be expected to do anything from cutting hair to amputating limbs. Mortality of surgery at the time was quite high due to loss of blood and infection. Doctors of the Middle Ages thought that taking blood would help cure the patient of sickness so the barber would apply leeches to the patient. Physicians tended to be academics, working in universities, and mostly dealt with patients as an observer or a consultant. They considered surgery to be beneath them.