George Baker (surgeon)

George Baker was an English surgeon of the Elizabethan age who lived from 1540 to 1600 and is remembered above all as a writer and translator of early medical texts in English. He belonged to the Company of Barbers and Surgeons of London and was elected its master in 1597. By 1574 he was attached to the household of the Earl of Oxford and already had a large London practice, and the high point of his career was service as personal surgeon to Queen Elizabeth I. His books include a treatise on the oil called Oleum Magistrale, a 1576 translation of Conrad Gessner under the title The Newe Jewell of Health, the Antidotarie of Select Medicine of 1579, and revised English versions of Guido and of Vigo on surgery. He argued for free translation and for writing learned subjects in the vulgar tongue, and he favored distilled medicines.