成人论坛

A major new narrative history series exploring over 2,000 years of western medicine, written and presented by medical historian Andrew Cunningham.

9/30. The Coming of the GP

Samuel Foote's riotous hit comedy The Devil Upon Two Sticks offers intriguing insight into a dramatic siege that took place in 1767 outside the Royal College of Physicians in London between old guard physicians and a new breed of general practitioners from Scotland.

The individual practices of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries were now under threat. It was to mark a major change in the skills and qualifications of medical men with the coming of the general practitioner, and as we discover, a violent outbreak of class war within medicine.

The readers are David Rintoul, Peter Capaldi, Jason Watkins and Scott Handy.