A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

physicians, surgeons and apothecaries. Pelling refines this by saying that
this tripartite arrangement was developed in continental Europe, but that it
is difficult to identify the period when it existed in England. 123 Instead
there was considerable overlap in the practice of the three occupations. 124
When writing about the period from 1550-1640, he goes on to state that
many surgeons and apothecaries admitted to providing internal remedies.
They justified this by claiming that either their actions were within the
terms of their own occupation, or that they were responding to physicians‘
requests, or that they were obliged to do so as practitioners. 125
After the Great Plague the physicians tried to take back from the
apothecaries the business they had lost during their absence. They opened
dispensaries and gave free advice to the poor. They tried to persuade the
apothecaries to reduce the cost of medicines supplied to the poor, but
without success. This was not surprising, as at that time the apothecaries
were only permitted to charge for their medicines and not their consultation.
The real problem was a difference of mindset; the physicians, as a
profession, were slow to realise that society was changing; they only
recognised two classes, the gentry and their servants. The apothecaries
were aware of the growth of a middle class and the desire for medical
treatment among the tradesmen who had some money to pay for it. They
were a new breed of doctor who wished to provide an affordable service for
123 Pelling, Common Lot, p. 231.
124 M. Pelling, „Appearances and Reality: barber surgeons, the body and diseases‟, in A. Beier and R.
Findlay (eds.) London 1500-1700 the Making of the Metropolis (London, 1986), pp. 82-112 quoted in P.
Watson, „Acquiring Surgical Know-how; occupational and lay instruction in early eighteenth century
London‟, in R. Porter, The Popularization of Medicine 1650-1850 (London and New York, 1992), p. 43,
note 9.
125 M. Pelling, Medical Conflicts in Early Modern London: patronage, physicians and irregular
practitioners (Oxford, 2003), p. 292.
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