Noteworthy Quaintitudes in the History of Medicine, with an opening unrelated, yet presicent, fact with regard to the Histories Militant as well.

During the Crusades, Odo of Bayeux, a cleric, preferred the use of blunt objects so as to avoid the dreaded blood-letting.

And This, from Asimov's Book of Facts:

"The Fourth Lateran council, in 1215, forbade clerics in holy orders to include surgery in their practice of medicine so they would not spill blood. Surgery was left to men who were neither scholars nor gentlemen. A distinction grew between physicians, who were members of a learned profession, and surgeons, who practiced a menial trade, often doubling as barbers or dentists."

Would that the Reader forgive potential impudence, but there is a conclusion the Author has made (with regard to the above excerpt) in the form of a Rubric, thusly:

Words (Men-of-Letters & Philosophers) ::Deeds (Commoners & Vagabonds)

And again, allow the Author to quote a defunct and long-forgotten group of futurist-cynic-satirist-minded, silvery faux appliance-bedecked automaton impersonators/troubadours:

"It takes action to act."

Incidentally, the word for "quack" (orig. quack-salver) in Spanish is sacamuelas, "tooth-puller/yanker."

The medieval barbers would affix bloody handkerchiefs to poles, implying experience in the now-infamous practice of blood-letting.

As for the subject of The Four Humours, now that is a matter for another day; or several, as it were.

~Dain Q. Gore