In 1745 this union of barbers and surgeons was dissolved; or, apparently, the surgeons ousting the barbers, received a new name and all the privileges of the old company, with the exclusive right to practise within London and for seven miles around. In 1800 the Surgeons’ Company was called “The Royal College of Surgeons, in London;” and this, in 1843, was changed to that of “The Royal College of Surgeons of England.” In Scotland, at a very early day, the chirurgeons and barbers were united, and enjoyed many rights and privileges. In 1505 the “craftes of Surregeury and Barbouris” were |6| formed into a college or corporation, by the town council of Edinburgh, and became one of the fourteen incorporated trades of the city. George the Third erected this corporation into a Royal College, and now it is known as “The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.” In 1599, James VI., “to avoid the inconvenience caused by ignorant, unskilled, and unlearned persons, who, under the colour of chirurgeons, are in the habit of abusing the people to their pleasure, and of destroying thereby infinite numbers of his Majesty’s subjects,” incorporated the faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow; and gave them jurisdiction over the City of Glasgow and the adjoining counties. A recent Act of Parliament has very much shorn the privileges of this faculty [3]. In Ireland, the “Fraternity of Barbers and Chirurgeons of the Guild of S. Mary Magdalene” was incorporated by Henry II. The apothecaries belonged to this body until 1745, when, with the aid of a statute, they set up for themselves, as “The Guild of S. Luke,” or “The worshipful Company of Apothecaries.” In 1784 the regularly educated surgeons of Dublin became incorporated under the name of “The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.” In the twelfth century medicine seems to have been first studied as a science in England. The Universities enacted that none should practise physic without passing through a certain course of study. In the fourteenth century the degree of Doctor of Physic was by no means uncommon. For many years physicians were greatly aided in chemistry and medical science by the discoveries of alchemists, and the search after the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life gave many useful hints to practitioners. Chaucer well describes a “Doctour of Phisike,” in the Prologue to the |7| Canterbury Tales, and gives an insight into the state of medical knowledge in the fourteenth century. ——He was grounded in astronomie. He kept his patient a ful gret del In houres by his magike naturel.