English sanitary institutions - 1897 Author:John Simon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: . — POST-MEDI.EVAL ENQLAND. CHAPTER V. TUDOR LEGISLATION. The period of the Tudor reigns, with which England emerged from mediaeval ways of thought... more » and action into ways comparatively modern, and soon gave such signs of national life as are still among the proudest of her memories, was not only fruitful in those decisive political achievements, and those immortal works of imaginative and philosophical genius, which made it so truly a dividing-epoch between the old times and the new ; but it was also able to spare energy and wisdom for relatively humble domestic reforms ; and, among these, were some which have to be noticed as of interest to the Health of the Population. First, as regards the Medical Profession itself: — In the The AT 1 ' 1 third year of the reign of Henry the Eighth the Legislature Profession considered, for the first time, under what conditions it should Physician8 be lawful to practise physic or surgery in England ; and an Act goons'" (c. xi) was passed, limiting the practice to such persons as JVf/h should be duly examined and approved. The preamble of the govem- Act recites (in Tudor spelling which this needs not copy) that " the science and cunning of physic and surgery, to the perfect knowledge whereof be requisite both great learning and ripe experience, is daily within this realm exercised by a great multitude of ignorant persons, of whom the great part have no manner of insight in the same nor in any other kind of learning, some also can no letters on the book, so far forth that common artificers, as smiths, weavers, and women, boldly and customably take upon them great cures, and things of great difficulty, in the which they partly use sorcery and witchcraft, partly apply such medicines unto the disease as be very noyous and nothing...« less