Medical Misadventure in an Age of Professionalisation, 1780-1890: Social Histories of Medicine

This book examines the turbulent careers of medical practitioners who wanted to become full members of the profession but were held back from the fulfilment of their ambitions. Some became bankrupt or were forced to take a post that did not live up to their expectations. Others were accused of neglecting or injuring patients, and there were those who felt the strain of professional practice so severely that they fell ill or committed suicide.

The book tells the stories of the unfortunate, deceptive and desperate doctors who tried and failed to earn a living, or who overcame substantial setbacks to their careers. It moves beyond the well-known examples of medical heroes and villains to reveal startling, poignant and sometimes equivocal experiences that complicate our understanding of medical professionalisation. By the end of the nineteenth century the behaviour of professional doctors aspired to be entirely disinterested; yet the continued existence of a medical marketplace demanded attention to personal gain and fostered covert competition between practitioners. This is the first book to consider the parameters of a specifically medical masculinity and pressure points for medical male identities.

This book will be essential reading for undergraduates working on the social history of medicine, and a research text for academic treatments of professionalisation in medicine.