Cambridgeshire doctors in the olden time, 1466-1827 / by W.M. Palmer.

  • Palmer, W. M. (William Mortlock), 1866-
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cambridgeshire doctors in the olden time, 1466-1827 / by W.M. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a barber-surgeon lived three centuries ago. The house of Richard Meakes, the man in question, consisted of hall and shop, with chambers over them and a lean-to kitchen. There was a glass window in a frame in his shop front, whereas a surgeon sixty years before had a canvas window. There was nothing in his shop or elsewhere referring to the surgical part of his trade except a bundle of pieces of old linen, valued at 5s., for use after bleeding. Three barber’s basins of pewter, a barber's pot and an old laver, and two basins of latten, are valued at 8s. 6d. There was a large quantity of linen such as neckingers, kerchiefs and shaving-cloths, valued at £2, including a face- cloth of cambric valued at 2s. 6d. Altogether his house and shop linen were worth £6, out of a total of £17, so something can be said for the cleanliness of barbers then. The barber- surgeon’s apparel was modest, being worth only 12s. Some of his bedding was stuffed with a material not met with before, and that is Fen down. There were two feather beds, a straw bed, a fen down bed, and three fen down bolsters. This fen down may have been from fen fowl, but from the small value attached to it, I should think it was the pappus of cotton-grass or sedge. The barber’s literature was as modest as his clothes. Old books and other lumberment are valued at 1s.? Now most of the writers on the history of medicine have been physicians, and they have invariably put the position of the surgeon as a low one. A surgeon, we are told, was not allowed to administer remedies for any internal complaint, nor to perform any major operation without the attendance of a physician, but I think that applied only to London. However that may be, one thing is quite evident, the Cambridge surgeon of the sixteenth century did not make money. The regius professor of physic complained in 1635 that surgeons and apothecaries were much sought after, and physicians seldom, except when the patient was ready to die. But the savings of physicians during his period averaged far more than those of surgeons and apothecaries. The professor in question was Dr Ralph Winterton, who followed Dr John Collins in that professorship. Dr Winterton was evidently on intimate terms
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