Contact Us

Medical Care in the Nineteenth Century

The society of Apothecaries was formed in 1617 but there was by no means national provision for medical care until the reign of George III .

In 1815 an act of parliament was passed to regulate the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales.

From our research we know that the Overseers in Willoughby, Warwickshire paid a local surgeon to vaccinate the poor in April 1820. He was also paid in 1825 to attend the parishioners for midwifery, fractures, small pox and accidents.

Herbalist

Most villages had at least one woman who was able to make up herbal remedies from plants she grew in her garden. Several plants such as thyme, parsley, sage, peppermint,were grown for their medicinal properties as well as for flavouring in cooking. Lavender was both refreshing and relaxing,  horehound was mixed with honey into a cold remedy. Camomile tea was imbibed as a nerve-soother and tonic. Shallots were heated and inserted aurally as a cure for earache.

One of our family members was reputably a gifted herbalist, Eliza ALLEN [957]. She kept a book of simples, which a grandson burnt after her death in 1915 for fear it would be used by some one incorrectly. Eliza was born in Middle Barton Oxfordshire in 1827 and moved to Worcestershire some time before 1861.


Medical Care Schemes

During the 1800s various schemes were set up to allow people to pay for medical care.

In his book  “Chipping Norton Inns” Dennis Lewis explained that several  Inns set up welfare clubs.

To provide assistance in times of illness or death” The regular patrons of various pubs paid a weekly sum  which allowed a payment when someone was ill .If there was sufficient money in the “box” at the end of the year the members shared a feast in their particular hostelry. Lewis says that on feast day all the club members paraded to church behind a band . Each participating pub hired a local band which later entertained the diners. Most of the bands had military connections such as”the band of the 5th Oxfordshire Rifle Corps”, “The Oxford Yeomanry Band” and the “Volunteers' fife and drum band.”  Then there would be games and stalls throughout the town. James McMULLIN [837] played with the Wantage Volunteers’ Fife and Drum band and also with the Town band.

Frederick Thomas McMULLIN [356]  told how his parents paid 3d a week for school fees and 1d a week at the Hall by the surgery in Wantage for dispensary and medical care. This must have been at the turn of the century as he left school in 1903. He said (a recording made on 31 Jan 1992) when talking about his childhood in Wantage about 1900

 “...we had to pay now in the surgery,Miss Fox her name was, ... penny a week in dispensing and that entitled us to medical attention. I can tell you the doctor now Dr Burton and Dr Edmunson*...  a man where I was working in the chemist used to make the prescriptions up. Pillbox we used to call him that was the second boss. Used a pestle and mortar. {others working at Cleggs} There was a Miss Little and Charlie Pain he was the man looking after all the stationary department while Clegg and Saunders used to look after the dispensary side.”

* Thomas Gilbert Emerson M.D. C.M. Newbury Street, Wantage was listed in Kelly’s Directory 1899

Hospitals

In some rural areas hospitals were set up in converted cottages in the 1860s. These were attended by a visiting doctor and a nurse. The patients paid a modest fee. In reality the cottage hospitals were able to offer little more than food and rest, but they were considered a better option than the Work house infirmaries which were staffed by pauper nurses. A good description of the fear people had of going to the Workhouse for treatment is given in “Lark Rise to Candleford” by Flora Thompson

“as soon as he realized where he was being taken, the old soldier, the independent old bachelor, the kind family friend, collapsed and cried like a child. He was beaten. But not for long. Before six weeks were over he was back in the parish and all his troubles were over, for he came in his coffin”

We know Elizabeth JOHNSON [928] née MELLOR died in the infirmary of the Birmingham workhouse in 1899. It is unlikely that she was a workhouse inmate until her illness as her son told how he and his sister tried to hide from the authorities after her death. They were eventually found and admitted to the cottage homes in Marston Green.

Although many physicians treated their patients free of charge generally their fees were above the means of most working families so near the end of the century doctors set up subscription schemes for patients, which would cover basic medical treatment and drugs

Frederick Thomas McMULLIN Told how a Romany had cured his mother of breast cancer with violet leaves he did not indicate when this was supposed to have happened but she died in 1934 aged 79. He also told of the time he had an accident in about 1910. At that time he was working at Clegg’s chemist in Wantage making mineral water. Gas from a cylinder was forced into the bottles, which had glass stoppers, syrups were added to flavour the water. A bottle exploded badly cutting his hand. He was taken to a hospital holding the cut hand firmly all the time but he had to wait for the only doctor to finish an operation before they bandaged him up and sent him home. Some days later his hand was very swollen and he had to have glass splinters removed before it would heal.


References:
The Diary of Revd John Skinner of Camerton.
Flora Thoinpson, Lark Rise to Candleford, London: Penguin, 1988, p.90.

Site layout and content © 2007-2018  Eric & Hazel McMullin Except where noted.

See also