The Education of Physicians and Surgeons
Since the physicians and surgeons did make substantial charges and since the educated layman could buy his own books on medicine and practice what he read or since the uneducated could turn to a neighbor with medical knowledge or to a quack, the question arises as to why the services of professional surgeons and physicians were in such demand. Part of the answer lies in the professional's experience, but even in a colony without a medical school it also lies in the education and training received by the professional.
There were several ways in which a seventeenth-century Virginia physician could acquire his education or training. He could have received a medical degree in England or on the continent and then gone to America. On the other hand, he might have learned without formal education—perhaps by attending lectures and by experience—and then established himself in Virginia where he was accorded professional status. A man born in Virginia could return to the Old World for training or formal education and then practice in Virginia. Also, a common manner of becoming a physician or surgeon in Virginia, which was without medical schools, was by apprenticeship. Finally, the importance of books—imported from Europe—as a means to medical education should not be minimized.
To be officially licensed for practice, the requirements in England were high—those in London especially so. The following excerpt from the statutes of the College of Physicians of London demonstrates how demanding the educational standards for seventeenth-century English physicians could be:
First, let them be examined in the physiologick part, and the very rudiments of medicine, and in this examination let questions be propounded out of the books concerning elements, temperaments, the use of parts, anatomy, natural powers and faculties, and other parts of natural medicine.
Secondly let him be examined in the pathologick part, or concerning the causes, differences, symptoms and signs of diseases, which physicians make use of to know the essence of diseases; and in this examination let questions be proposed out of books concerning the art of physick, of the places affected, of the differences of diseases and symptoms, of feavers, of the pubes, of the books of prognosticks of Hippocrates, &c.
Thirdly let him be examined concerning the use and exercise of medicine, or the reason of healing; and let that be done out of the books concerning preservation of health, of the method of healing, of the reason of diet in acute diseases, of simple medicines, of crises, of the aphorisms of Hyppocrates, and other things of that kind, which relate to the use of healing; for example sake, what caution to be observed in purging? in what persons? with what medicine? and in what vein, those things ought to be done? Likewise, what is the use of narcoticks and sleeping medicines? and what caution is to be observed in them? what is the position and site of the internal places? and by what passages medicines come to there? what is the use of clysters, what kind of vomits, the danger, kind and measure?
Under the London Company, the physicians and surgeons in Virginia had the same education, training, and met the same standards as their counterparts in England. This was, in part, because the Company had good reason to supply adequate medical service, and because the men sent were but Englishmen transplanted to America. Walter Russell, who came to Virginia in 1608 was a "Doctour of Physicke" and Lawrence Bohun, De la Warr's physician, had the same degree. Pott, who succeeded Bohun as physician-general of Virginia in 1621, came recommended as a Master of Arts well-practiced in surgery and physics.
After the Company's charter was annulled, few physicians or surgeons with the advanced medical degrees came to Virginia. Some of the persons, however, who practiced medicine in Virginia without medical degrees had acquired skills and knowledge in Europe or England before coming to the New World.
Patrick Napier who came to Virginia about 1655 as an indentured servant and subsequently had a large medical practice, probably learned his profession in England or on the Continent, as might have Francis Haddon, another who came under terms of indenture and who later, also, had a considerable medical practice. To these two examples of persons with training and experience acquired prior to their arrival in America might be added the similar experiences of John Williams and John Inman.