Note 6 — IV The Zenith

This and the two following regulations illustrate in a very remarkable manner the complete subjection in which the physicians held the surgeons in Harvey’s time and for many subsequent years. It was not until Abernethy was surgeon to the hospital, at the beginning of the century, that the surgeons were allowed to prescribe more than a black draught or blue pill for their patients until the prescription had been countersigned by one of the physicians.