Sixty-four years a doctor : reminiscences of Sir Charles Brown, an octogenarian Lancashire doctor / [Sir Charles Brown].

  • Brown, Charles, Sir, 1836-1925.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sixty-four years a doctor : reminiscences of Sir Charles Brown, an octogenarian Lancashire doctor / [Sir Charles Brown]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A DOCTOR MY FATHER. MY father, Robert Brown, was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1852, and was an Alderman of the Borough up to the time of his death, which took place in February, 1858, when he was 58 years of age. My father practised in Preston from 1822 to 1857. At the age of 14 he was bound an apprentice for seven years to a Surgeon at Skipton in Yorkshire. When he had completed his apprenticeship, he spent one year at St. George’s Hospital which was all that was required in those days. After having passed his examinations he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1821. During the early part of his apprenticeship he had to make up bottles of medicine, roll out pills, fill small pots with ointment, and spread blisters and warming plasters. After 17 he had to attend patients who were ill, and he also attended a very large number of what the late Mr. Albert Smith called Census increasing cases.” He was, therefore, what was called an unqualified assistant, but, of course, such a person cannot now be legally employed. As the practice was eminently what is called a country one, most of his visiting was done on horseback, and I have heard him say that he returned from some of his journeys so fatigued that, after unsaddling the faithful animal which had conveyed him on his long journeys, he lay down in the straw and slept in the stall during the re¬ mainder of the night. Some of the domestic discomforts