Acceso usuarios
Manuel Amezcua Martínez
Los barberos sangradores y los sangradores flebotomianos fueron quizá los profesionales más característicos de la práctica empírica de la medicina en la España Moderna. Su ejercicio estuvo asociado a la vigencia de una técnica delegada de la medicina, la sangría, que diera lugar a sesudos enfrentamientos entre partidarios y detractores de sus indicaciones y eficacia terapéutica. Los sangradores alcanzaron un cierto reconocimiento social, pero su práctica siempre estuvo condicionada por su posición ambigua entre los profesionales titulados (médicos y cirujanos latinos) y otros empíricos sin formación cuyos métodos traspasaban a menudo los límites de la superstición. En el Archivo Histórico de la ciudad de Granada, se conservan algunos títulos de sangradores flebotomianos, expedidos entre 1666 y 1720, cuyo análisis se realiza en este trabajo con el objeto de ofrecer una visión aproximada del tipo de profesional que era el sangrador, así como algunas características en particular del sangrador granadino. Estos documentos se presentaron en el cabildo de la ciudad por sus titulares al tiempo de solicitar licencia para ejercer en ella, siendo en total siete los títulos que se conservan íntegros más otros tres de los que sólo se aportan algunos datos. En uno de los casos se inserta también el título de cirujano, lo que nos permite esclarecer las diferencias tanto formativas como funcionales respecto del sangrador. El análisis de los documentos se realiza desde la perspectiva del contexto social donde fueron emanados, contraponiendo las cosideraciones legales del ejercicio de las distintas disciplinas auxiliares de la medicina (cirujanos, barberos, sangradores) con el nivel de socialización que alcanzaron, para lo que se manejan algunas fuentes literarias.
The barbers and phlebotomists were perhaps the most characteristic professionals of empirical practice in medicine in modern Spain. Their work was associated with a medical technique: "Bleeding", which was the cause of dramatic battles between pro-bleeding and anti-bleeding groups which found themselves embroiled in bitter discussions about its therapeutic value. Bleeders reached some social standing at the time but their practise had always been questioned due to their ambiguous position between fully qualified professionals - doctors and Latin surgeons - and those other empirical amateurs with no education other than experience, whose methods could somehow be compared to those of superstition or witchcraft. The skillful work of barber and bleeder was permanently under control of the "Protomedicato", an institution created by the Reyes Católicos (The Catholic Kings) in order to govern and maintain the high quality of health care practised by medical doctors and surgeons. The institution was later extended to cover some other jobs loosely associated with medicine, such as enamelists, chemists, and herb specialists. Barbers and bleeders were allowed to work for rather a short period in Castille, where all the disciplines were merged by the "Protobarbeirato", while in Valencia their legal endorsement to work was common to barbers, surgeons and bleeders. They all had to sit for the same type of exam under Latin surgeons. In the Granada Town Hall Library some certificates of phlebotomian bleeders issued between 1666 and 1720 are preserved. Our present study concentrates on these documents with the main purpose of analysing the profession of bleeder at that time, and especially in Granada. There are 7 certificates in prime condition while in some other 3, only a few facts are legible. One of the documents shows the difference between a doctor's and a bleeder's function, not only at a theoretical level but at in practise as well. Our analysis is performed from a social perspective, considering the diverse aspects of the many core disciplines: surgeon, bleeder, barber..., as well as the other auxiliary medical practises prevalent at the time.
