Medical revolutions? the growth of medicine in England, 1660-1800

Wallis, Patrick and Pirohakul, Teerapa (2016) Medical revolutions? the growth of medicine in England, 1660-1800. Journal of Social History, 49 (3). pp. 510-531. ISSN 0022-4529

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Abstract

This paper studies the rising use of commercial medical assistance in early modern England. We measure individual consumption of medical and nursing services using a new dataset of debts at death between c.1670-c.1790. Levels of consumption of medical services were high and stable in London from the 1680s. However, we find rapid growth in the provinces, in both the likelihood of using medical assistance, and the sums spent on it. The structure of medical services also shifted, with an increase in “general practice”, particularly by apothecaries. The expansion in medical services diffused from London, and was motivated by changing preferences, not wealth.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://jsh.oxfordjournals.org/
Additional Information:	© 2015 The Authors
Library of Congress subject classification:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Sets:	Departments > Economic History
Date Deposited:	05 Jun 2015 13:03
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62224/

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