THE BARBER’S POLE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 251, 18 July 1921, Page 9

THE BARBER’S POLE

Every painted polo outside the barbers tfhop proclaims tho days when surgery was only a side line, says a writer in the London "Evening Nows.” When the craft, of the tmrgeon was in its the barber practised tho art of bloodletting,’’ which in those times was a panacea for every ill. Tor this important operation tlm patient, who was first comfortably seated in a chair, was given a staff or polo which ho gripped tightly in one band. The barber then made an incision in the- forearm, and the requisite quantity of blood was allowed to flow nway. After this the arm was tightly bound-above the wound to prevent further bleeding. Tt was during the sixteenth century that the barber first adopted tho idea of usirfl tho pole as a sign of his profession. About this period a separate group of surgeons arose who practised surgery alone, and these also used tho pole as a symbol of their profession. While the barbers, however, used a staff pointed with blue and white stripes alone, the surgeons elected to use the same sign together with a gallipot and a red rag. At tho present dhy the surgeon does not use the sign of the polo nt all, wherear, tho barber still continues in many cases to keep nlivo the old tradition by having the pole repainted at intervals.