Genre:

Essay, Drollery; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J Leech *

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Expertise, Charlatanry, Status

    Seeks to settle a dispute over 'the respective merits of the Physician and the General Practitioner'. Notes that the general practitioner regards himself as superior owing to the greater number of letters that follow his name and his Oxbridge education. Points out that the physician deals with a particular (internal) class of disease and that the kinds of ailment he attends render his treatment more 'gentlemanlike [...] than that of others'. Distinguishes the physical features of the two types of practitioner, notably the drab attire of physicians and the 'sports coloured' clothes worn by the general practitioner. Illustration tries to reflect these differences. Notes that meetings between physicians and general practitioners end in mutual charges of charlatanry.