An account of rural medical practice from the 18th century onwards in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire

This is a very important work which casts new light on traditional medical systems and beliefs, and makes vital contributions to the understanding of gender in the construction of medicine in rural Egypt. Though Morsy's research relates to the modern period, it is also relevant to the understanding of popular medicine in medieval times and in other parts of the Middle East. As there is so much of value to be pursued, it is especially unfortunate that the book has no index. has traced the roots of Long Buckby's present medical practice to 1730 in the person of Thomas West, possibly followed by Hubert Floyer in about 1753, and Edward Swinfen who seems to have arrived in 1770. There were two independent practices running in parallel which did not amalgamate until 1954 in the time of Dr Lilly. If the author had widened his sources he would have found that West had received a bishop's licence to practise physic and surgery in 1719, and that Swinfen had been the apprentice of Richard Swinfen, apothecary of Hinckley, Leicestershire, and a member of a well known medical and pharmaceutical family in the Midlands. The book gives an unfortunate impression that the writer's knowledge of medical history is ill digested. The Act of 1815 gave the Society of Apothecaries the right and the obligation to examine all those who intended to practise as general practitioners, not just its own members who, in any case, they had always examined if they hoped to obtain the Society's Freedom. The records of the Apothecaries show that many provincial practitioners in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were apprenticed to members of the Society, which disposes of his question as to where apprentices "learnt the work of the apothecary" (pp. 3, 4). It is certain the hospital physicians did not give instruction in dispensing as he suggests (p. 5). It is true that a five-year apprenticeship was a requisite for the Licentiateship of the Society of Apothecaries, but the student also had to attend two courses of lectures on anatomy and physiology, two courses on the theory and practice of medicine, one course on chemistry and another on materia medica; he also had to produce a certificate to show he had had medical practice for at least six months in a public hospital, infirmary or dispensary. The Royal College of Surgeons' Diploma (MRCS) was not instituted in "about …