Medieval Medical Market Place

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The control of the medical market in medieval Europe, specifically in Britain and France was under little authority, unlike in neighboring regions like Italy and Germany. With little control, services were offered to the population by "specialists" whether or not they had a license or some examined degree of competency, and with a medical market place with an increasingly high demand, supply was erupting from different sources to meet different demands for different illnesses for varying demographics creating some key players in the medical market place. The variation in roles of these new players in the medical world is what started the medical market place in the first place. Potions, pills, ointments, and home-made remedies and drugs were sold by apothecaries at their own shops. Medical Physicians prepared drugs to order by each patient after examining them. Barber-surgeons offered services in shaving and hair-cutting, but also added to their trade bloodletting, tooth extractions, amputations and other repulsive yet well needed services. Female surgeons, if allowed to practice, treated female patients (Science Museum). Indeed they were many players in the medieval medical market place, each with their own skills, demographics, successes and failures. Patients were "customers" and they sometimes had options pertaining to the services they need, some options are more expensive than others, some are safer than others, and some maybe more convenient than others, however unlike other market places a successful service could very well save lives, while others may not solve an issue or ailment, or even cause more harm to the patient, which was a common case. To get a good idea of the range of the Medieval medical market place, we can...

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...ow about internal medicine with the rise of hospital-based training. Eventually, the Company of Surgeons split from the barbers, abolishing surgery training by apprenticeship, as this form of surgical education flourished and barbers were no longer allowed to carry out complex surgical procedure yet for some time they were allowed to carry out some simple procedures like bloodletting and teeth-pulling. In 1745 the London College of Surgeons was established by King George II and the Royal Academy of Surgery was established by King Louis XV in 1748, with all surgeons now being university educated, and with surgery now under a new modern reputation, considered a sophisticated medical skill that can reduce ailment, save lives, and a window to learn more about the physiology of the body as a whole, which is the same goals as that of the traditional physician of medicine.

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