Advances in science during the Victorian era began to demonstrate that disease was due to physical, rather than supernatural factors. This led to the general populace looking more to medical cures for their ailments, rather than turning to religion as they had in the past. As a result, it was during this time that the medical profession as we now know it emerged. There were three categories of medical practitioners in Victorian England: physicians, surgeons and apothecaries.
Physicians
Physicians were the most respected class of doctors and were required to be licensed by the Royal College of Physicians in London. They were called physicians because they administered primarily to the emotional well-being, or physic, of their patients. A physician was often a gentleman doctor who would charge as much as a guinea per visit, ensuring that his clientele would be from the upper class who could afford it. In addition to seeing patients in his consulting room, he would also make house calls where he would often join the family for dinner after his consultation.
The most common ailment a physician treated was hysteria in women, which was basically a result of sexual frustration resulting from living in the repressive Victorian upper class. Hysteria was treated either with a prescription for laudanum (a combination of opium, herbs and alcohol), hypnosis, or a pelvic massage to induce a paroxysm. Since sex was defined in those days as penetration, clitoral stimulation to bring a patient to orgasm was considered to be purely medical and not a sexual activity.
Dr. Damian Thatch, the protagonist in my book series, The Erotic Adventures of a Victorian Doctor, is a physician who has perfected the technique of pelvic massage.
Surgeons
Surgeons were the class of doctors who dealt with sickness and injury and were available to all classes. While they could also perform the activities of a physician, there was little call for them to do so since sexual frustration was not an issue for the working class. Their respect grew during the Victorian age as new treatments for various diseases were discovered and employed.
Dr. Archibald Onan is an example of this type of doctor.
Apothecaries
The lowest class in the Victorian medical hierarchy were the apothecaries. Some of them would mix medicines which were prescribed by a doctor, while others treated and advised patients directly. Since there was no licensing or regulation for medicines in Victorian England, this opened the way for some practitioners in this class to take advantage of the public’s growing demand for medicine. They would create a variety of elixirs, promising cures for a wide range of diseases and conditions, and openly sell them directly to the public.
It was the Victorian era that heralded in the beginnings of modern medicine, psychiatry, and pharmacy.