Mister Doctor: titles of medicos, surgeons and barbers

Summary

When is a doctor called ‘Mister’? When the doctor is a surgeon. According to age-old tradition, surgeons were called ‘Mr’ in order to distinguish them from barbers. Yes, you read it correctly. For a long period, surgeons and barbers were easily confused, as both professions were closely related – so closely that, in England, a professional guild called the United Barber–Surgeons Company was formed in 1540. This co-op was to live on for nearly 200 years.

What did doctors have to do with barbers? The two groups had quite a lot more in common back then than they do now. Along with giving you a nice haircut, your friendly neighbourhood barber was trained to perform a host of ‘ordinary’ medical procedures, such as cutting out tonsils or amputating a limb or removing gallstones. It fell upon hairdressers to learn these tasks and then to perform them either in the barber's chair or in the cosy comfort of your own kitchen. In addition, your local multi-tasking barber also often served as a family dentist.

The barber usually had only elementary training or apprenticeship in the art of crude carving, but still could call himself ‘Doctor’. One of the most common duties of the barber was to perform phlebotomies, that is, bloodletting. In fact, the spinning barbershop pole is commonly considered to be a symbol of red blood and white bandages (there are also red, blue and white poles, thus differentiating between venal and arterial blood).