More Medical History

"Complaints about the high cost of medical attention were many, Earle wrote about 'A Mere Dull Physician' who always pronounced a 'disease incurable but by an abundant phlebotomy of the purse.' A versifier made public the fat income of Rogers, a Kentish apothecary:

So that he did receive two hundred pound
By each yeeres practice, as it cleere was found.

The doctors, for their part, had a very high social position to maintain and accordingly charged well for attendance, which is the reason why more than half of the population had to confine their medication to home physic or to risk advice from unlicensed practitioners or illiterate quacks.

Bridenbaugh, Carl. Vexed and Troubled Englishmen 1590-1642, Oxford University Press, 1968. pg.106.