Daily Life During the French Revolution by James M. Anderson

Author:James M. Anderson [Anderson, James M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

The best doctors were almost always to be found in cities, and, with their superior university background, physicians were considered much more distinguished than surgeons. Medical courses were still based on centuries-old classical Latin texts and were far from arduous in any empirical sense. It was entirely possible for a doctor to complete his medical studies without ever visiting the bedside of an ill person. It cost some 7,000 livres to be registered, but the majority of doctors were middle- or upper-level bourgeois who were able to start fashionable practices and soon recoup their expenses by charging high fees.

For common people, doctors were not only feared; they were also economically out of reach. Doctors were traditionally represented as a rapacious group whose few minutes of advice cost a worker several days’ pay. The complaint was that all a doctor cared about was prestige and wealth. A government survey, conducted as late as 1817 to assess the geographical distribution of medical personnel, reported that there were still many rural areas without doctors, who continued to be distrusted and avoided by the local populace.

Surgeons, on the other hand, were respected by the poor because they worked with their hands. Before 1743, their training rarely involved attendance at university. Instead, they were required to do an apprenticeship under a tutor. Previously known as barber-surgeons, these men once cut hair, shaved clients, pulled teeth, stitched up or cauterized wounds, treated dislocated bones, and handled a host of other maladies for which the lofty physician would not dirty his hands. For many years, surgeons strove to combat their perceived association with barbers. A small percentage of those living and working in the capital earned good money, but most surgeons lived on much less. In the provinces, the average income of a surgeon was only around 1,000 livres. While the poor preferred to go to the quack, they might consult the surgeon on occasion for some kind of treatment.

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