16th Century Surgeons

In sixteenth century, the death rate was very high and life expectation of life was usually between 30 to 40 years. If someone survived to the age of 20, they could expect to survive nearly 40 more years of life. This is because infant and young mortalities were very high. The great killers were infectious diseases, such as smallpox, plague and dysentery and 40 to 50 percent of children were killed by infectious disease by the age 15. Infant mortality usually was around 150-200 per 1000 live births. But geographical environments and social conditions could increase the mortality dramatically. For example, Allhallows London Wall was one of the poorest, crowing and unsanitary area in London and its mortality was 508 per thousand live

Learned medical practitioners were trained and educated practitioners included physicians, surgeons and apothecaries. Physicians had superior social status than surgeons and apothecary. Physicians were responsible for diagnosing, providing attendance and advice to patients. Most top Royal College of physicians crowded into the capitals and charged patients high service fee. Surgeon and apothecary were lower in status compared with physicians because people think the jobs of surgeons only involved their hands rather than head. So people did not think job of surgeons were complicated as physicians. People thought surgeons were craft and arts of knife and they were usually treat external complaints like boils and wounds by performed simple operations. The skills of surgeons were apprenticeship. The Barber Surgeons Company of London was established in 1540. Apothecary had parallel status of the surgeon. The apothecary dispensed what the physician prescribed. But jobs of physicians, surgeons and apothecary are usually overlapped especially in small

These unlearned medical practitioners provided wide choice to patients. Everyone could be unlearned medical practitioners and there unlearned practitioners were usually included travelling empirics people and herbalists and wise-women, and people bought the remedies from then just like bought cloth and goods from travelling peddlers. These unlearned practitioners are strong competitors to these learned practitioners. Unlearned medical practitioners like women play very important roles in sixteenth century. Women not only could treat both serious and minor illness but also could take care of their sick relatives. Most people who provided medical care at birth chamber were women and they dominated proceedings. This kind of medical expertise was usually learned from experience and from other women. There was a strong belief that medical expertise did not lie only among the learned. In the description of Florence’s premier of Savoy hospital illustrated that St Maria Nuova, sent Henry VII of England to help him in planning of Savoy hospital, the skills of the unlearned women treating women patients were fulsomely praised: “the women include several skilled in surgery, for experience is mistress of all things. These have many remarkable cures to their credit and are even more trusted than the men.” The boundaries between learned and unlearned medicine not significant clear because