The Barber-Surgeons Company turned out to be a motley group of persons from different walks of life who also called themselves surgeons. The ‘surgeons’ comprised not only hairdressers but also musicians and tailors, inn keepers and those who made their alcoholic drinks, clothing makers and so on. The islanders could only laugh and quickly disbanded them, while retaining those who had actually studied anatomy and practiced surgery successfully rather than barbarically. There were but few of these and the islander healers sought their expertise to augment their own.
They also passed on to the ‘real’ English surgeons their knowledge of anatomy and surgery and treatment of fractures using inserts of bone or wood to allow new bone to grow over or join damaged bones. The surgeons were amazed to
