Victorian Doctors Surgeries

[Tundra]

Attached to the Doctor's house, or not?

[MichaelB]

In Victoria, Tundra, doctors have their own little offices. Some of these offices are houses that have been remodeled and becarparked, but most are built specially.

Oh, you mean 'during the reign of Queen Victoria'? :P

http://voyagesofdrfabre.blogspot.com/2007/05/medical-doctors-in-victorian-era.html
Next below the physicians in the medical hierarchy were the Surgeons. They were the men who cut people open, dealt with fractures, skin diseases, V.D, eye problems - anything, in short, for which a physician could simply not give a perscription. From a social point of view, the problem with being a surgeon was that the actual work involved was like manual labor; you did, after all, use your hands to treat people and did something with them - unlike the physician - besides just write on a piece of paper.

In addition, it had not been so long - 1745 in fact - since surgeons had been formally linked with barbers, and what's more, until 1833 surgeons got the bodies on which they learned their anatomy from graveyards - sometimes by rather unscrupulous means.Perhaps because of this difference in status, the physiciann was usually addressed as "Dr.", while the surgeon made due with plain "Mr.". On the other hand, you did need a license to practice surgery, and it cost less to tran as a surgeon than a physician. The cost of the usual necessary preliminary education at Oxford and Cambridge put physic out of reach for most poor boys. Instead, surgery was learned, like other manual skills, largely by being apprenticed.

http://www.geocities.com/victorianmedicine/entire.html

Most doctors maintained a room in their residence for treatment and care. This room, dubbed the surgery (even when the practitioner was not a surgeon), was open to patients without appointment during specific hours. (Mitchell, Daily Life 196) (http://www.geocities.com/victorianmedicine/sources.html) Physicians and doctors did not deal with external injuries. They did not set bones, examine patients, or perform surgery. Doctors primarily administered 'physic', or drugs, utilizing a detailed case history provided by another medical practitioner. Doctors were chiefly concentrated in London where they were guaranteed a host of upper class patients. (Pool 249) (http://www.geocities.com/victorianmedicine/sources.html)

O Google Search where would we be without you?

[Tundra]

Yay!

:)
And does anyone know how rich one would have to be to become a doctor? (physician or surgeon)

[Serafina]

It depends somewhat what time the person was training.

University of Cambridge did not have a proper medical course until the 1840s, and Oxford until the 1850s, though medicine was taught to some level at both universities before then, and this period marks the beginning of the shift of medical education from hospitals to universities. Cambridge and Oxford had traditionally been included in the College of Physicians of London, which helped regulate physicians and apothecaries, before the formation of the General Medical Council in 1850s. In the 1850s, Cambridge and Oxford were still the preserve of the upper and upper middle classes, but by the 1880s, efforts were being made to accommodate poorer students such as with the establishment of Selwyn College at Cambridge, as well as non-collegiate establishments such as Fitzwilliam House (nowadays, to study at Cambridge and take university examinations you have to be a member of a college (or Homerton, which is a constituent college). The non-collegiate establishments were places were poorer people could live while attending university lectures - which were open to the public. Selwyn students paid £27 a term for their food, lodging, lectures and tuition, with a small surcharge if they studied medicine, engineering or natural sciences. (see here) (http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/college/history1973/).

Hospital medical schools were the other option. The first hospital based medical school was opened in London in 1785 (London Hospital Medical College), and other teaching hospitals from the period include St Bart's, St George's, Guy's, St Thomas', King's College Hospital (founded for teaching from King's College, London). King's College, though teaching medicine, in its early years (1830s) could not provide practical clinical experience for its students within its own hospital, and so experience had to be provided at other medical schools (see here (http://www.kch.nhs.uk/about/history/foundation/)). King's relied on donations to operate, so it probably would have not been able to support trainee doctors and surgeons who did not come from wealthier families.

Aside from London, Oxford and Cambridge, medicine could also be studied at other cities in the UK such as Glasgow (http://www.gla.ac.uk/faculties/medicine/history/19thcentury/), Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Dublin.


The General Medical Council (GMC) was founded in 1858 to register doctors, to become a member of the GMC you had to receive a diploma, license or degree from a recognised examining body (GMC don't seem to have a history on their site, so at the moment I cannot find where they are). Prior to this, there were various other ways of qualifying as a 'doctor' that didn't involve medical school (eg apprenticeship to an apothecary). In 1886, it became mandatory for all practitioners to qualify in medicine, surgery and midwifery. This article (http://www.bris.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/Bird/PHMed_3_notes.pdf) is all about 19th century medicine.

This doesn't entirely answer your question, but it think it all depends on the route taken by a physician/surgeon, that isn't easily answerable. Without patronage from a wealthy sponsor, it is unlikely that a working class or even lower middle class would have been able to afford medical training. A quick look through famous surgeons and doctors of the 19th century (Joseph Lister, James Syme, William Fergusson, Sampson Gamgee, William Bowman) - many seem to come from a prosperous family. However, James Simpson was the son of a baker and the youngest of 8 children, but still studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh - paid for by his Father and brothers.