The surgeon and physician thing was a major difference, they were completely different professions, or throught they were. There are loads of medical history websites but I haven't got any references to hand, a bit of googling should find something. Surgeons were evolving from barber-surgeons, which many still were. None of them, as was said, would have called themselves a doctor. Physicians were more expensive and only for the middling and upper sorts (by and large) so probably it was rather like now, people use pharmacists for all sorts of medical advice, and apothecaries presumably were treated in the same way. Like physicians their advice would have been all about the humors and blood and urine ... (I think) Lyn B

Sorry, Readers. I couldn't resist it!! Lyn Boothman said: The surgeon and physician thing was a major difference, they were completely different professions, or throught they were. They still do!!