Note 132 — Chapter VII · Health, Disease and Sanitation[125]

Dr. Poore has analysed the different points in Chaucer’s description, and explained the various allusions of the statement that the doctor’s line of study had little to do with the Bible. Dr. Poore writes: ‘This line is frequently quoted to show that the scepticism with which doctors are often charged is of no modern growth. The point of the line is however to be found in the fact that Chaucer’s doctor was certainly a priest, as were all the physicians of his time, and that the practice of medicine had drawn him away, somewhat unduly, perhaps, from the clerical profession, to which he also belonged.’—G.V. Poore, M.D. London from the Sanitary and Medical Point of View, 1889, p. 52.