The Middle Ages - Differentiation Between Barber-Surgeons

To differentiate between the two professions, barber-surgeons began placing a striped pole of red and white or blue and white or all three colors outside their places of business. Usually suspended from the pole was a basin that was used to receive blood during a bloodletting. The basins ranged from being plain in looks to being very elaborately decorated. Some even had graduated lines to indicate the number of ounces of blood when filled to that line.