Doctors and Disease in Tudor Times.

In many ways the Tudor epoch in British medicine was a critical turning point. Many factors contributed; the awakening of learning, the beginning of the diffusion of knowledge, the willingness to attack problems of nature directly, not by observation only, especially when all observation was preconditioned by such strong beliefs that it saw through glasses darkly. By no means last was the founding of the College of Physicians in London in 1518. This step in a way epitomized the growing awareness on the part of physicians that they had a broad corporate responsibility to protect the patient by demanding rigorous standards of training, education, and experience before anyone was permitted to practice medicine. It is perhaps stretching a generalization too far to say that the medical profession, at least in its modern history, has made the requirements for medical practice so difficult, so long, and so onerous that only the