In the early part of the 19th century, as practitioners of medicine groped their way through a fog of ignorance and toward the light of a leech-less healthcare system, this surgical tool - named after its inventor, Dr. Cholmondoley Barking - found frequent use in the drawing rooms of England's wealthiest and most privileged members where it was employed by society's most respected physicians to extract a whacking great fee from patients reluctant to turn their heads and cough up the cash.