1962/10/01 by R. S. Roberts, Robin S. Roberts
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #Medical History and Innovations #History of Medicine Studies #Medicine and Dermatology Studies History
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s002572730002768x
the preliminary training in Arts could be dispensed with.10 Also it became more common to apply for University licences 'to practise medicine throughout England'. The exact nature of these licences is not clear, for at Cambridge they seemed to be a substitute for the M.B. degree whereas at Oxford they were often granted at the same time as the M.B., but there the time between the M.B. and a previous M.A. was greater;"' occasionally the licence was even taken with the M.D. and nearly always the applicant was already in practice.'2 According to the Professor of Physic at Cambridge in I635 licenses had been granted indiscriminately before his time, even to serving men and apothe- caries. 3 It is on this point of the exact background of the men in Raach that a more detailed examination is required, for however illuminating, the list of eight hundred may be misleading. Firstly it needs to be demonstrated that the holders of degrees did really practise; some men, such as Miles Beveridge and John Browne, seem to be included merely on the strength of their possessing a degree. This is particularly true of the seventy-odd physicians listed for the cities ofOxford and Cambridge, for such a figure is quite disproportionate to the population. Others, such as William Denton and Thomas Jeesop, are included as country physicians, but in fact they merely retired to the countryside after long years of practice in London.'4 It is unlikely that this qualification basically alters the picture presented by Raach but it could mean that there is an over- estimation of the extent to which country physicians were formally educated.