Report as to the practice of medicine and surgery by unqualified persons in the United Kingdom.

  • Great Britain. Local Government Board
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report as to the practice of medicine and surgery by unqualified persons in the United Kingdom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    8/92 (page 6)
    obtained a reputation as such, can do an immense practice, ])eo))le for miles round sending him specimens of urine, from wliicli he professes to diag-no-se their aihnents, Iceepiug them under treatment until they are forced to send for medical advice. Patients often suffer greatly by reason of this practice, medical treatment being advised only when the case becomes serious. (b) Effects OIL the Public Heultli. Some Medical Officers of Health complain that chemists do n(jt know, or only imperfectly know the diseases they treat, and that consequently their prescribing is for the most part superficial and directed only to the symptoms. Instances are reported of cases which have been referred to doctors, only in time for them to give a certificate of death. Infectious diseases, such as measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria and smallpox, are stated to be frequently over- looked by chemists, and some Medical Officers of Health attribute outbreaks of infectious diseases to this cause. Children's skin diseases are wrongly treated, and this sometimes necessitates a prolonged absence from school. The treatment of infants' diseases by chemists is regarded as having some bearing on infant mortality. They are reported to treat infants very largely during the diarrhoeal season. Phthisis and cancer in the early stages are sometimes, through improper treatment, aggravated, and in many cases become too advg,nced for effectual medical or surgical treatment afterwards. HERBALISTS. (a) Extent of Practice, Herbalists may be roughly divided into two classes. (1) One class is itinerant, partaking largely of the nature of the ordinary itinerant quack, who sells his remedies in markets, or hawks them from door to door. It is difficult to estimate the extent of the practice of these people, but it is known to prevail largely in the country districts. (2) The second class (male and female herbalists) is established in shops in urban areas, and is very prevalent in the lai-ge manu- facturing centres. The practice of herbalists, while it is scattered more or less over the whole country, is especially noticeable in Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire—particularly in the popidous boroughs of these counties, where their numbers show a marked increase—and to a somewhat less extent in Wales. In one city they are stated to number between 40 and 50, and to have more than doubled during the last 25 years. Her1)alists advertise extensively in the press. In one large town in Yorkshire their signs are said to exist in most of the streets, and also in the Corporation Tramears.