The barber-surgeons had a by-law, by which they levied ten pounds on any person who should dissect a body out of their hall without leave. The separation did away this and other impediments to the improvement of surgery in England, which previously had been chiefly cultivated in France. The barber-surgeon in those days was known by his pole, the reason of which is sought for by a querist in "The British Apollo," fol. Lond. 1708, No. 3:-- "I'de know why he that selleth ale Hangs out a chequer'd part per pale; And why a barber at port-hole Puts forth a party-colour'd pole?" ANSWER. "In ancient Rome, when men lov'd fighting, And wounds and scars took much delight in, Man-menders then had noble pay, Which we call _surgeons_ to this day. 'Twas order'd that a huge long pole, With basen deck'd, should grace the hole. To guide the wounded, who unlopt Could walk, on stumps the others hopt; But, when they ended all their wars, And men grew out of love with scars, Their trade decaying, to keep swimming, They join'd the other trade of trimming; And to their poles, to publish either, Thus twisted both their trades together." From Brand's "History of Newcastle," we find that there was a branch of the fraternity in that place; as at a meeting, 1742, of the barber-chirurgeons, it was ordered, that they should not shave on a Sunday, and "that no brother shave John Robinson, till he pay what he owes to Robert Shafto." Speaking of the "grosse ignorance of the barbers," a facetious author says, "This puts me in minde of a barber who, after he had cupped me, (as the physitian had prescribed,) to turn a catarrhe, asked me if I would be _sacrificed_. _Scarified_? said I; did the physitian tell you any such thing? No, (quoth he,) but I have sacrificed many, who have been the better for it. Then musing a little with myselfe, I told him, Surely, sir, you mistake yourself--you meane _scarified_. O, sir, by your favour, (quoth he,) I have ever heard it called sacrificing; and as for scarifying, I never heard of it before. In a word, I could by no means perswade him but that it was the barber's office to _sacrifice_ men. Since which time I never saw any man in a barber's hands, but that _sacrificing_ barber came to my mind."--_Wadd's Nugæ_. * * * * * Sir Theodore Mayerne may be considered one of the earliest reformers of the practice of physic. He left some papers written in elegant Latin, in the Ashmolean Collection, which contain many curious particulars relative to the first invention of several medicines, and the state of physic at that period. Petitot, the celebrated enameller, owed his success in colouring to some chemical secrets communicated to him by Sir Theodore.