ABSTRACT
Woodall, born about 1 570, was apprenticed at about the age of sixteen to a London barber-surgeon. This indenture was supposed to last seven years, but Woodall was just nineteen when he joined Lord Willoughby's regiment as surgeon-which was not unusual, since the prime qualification for surgery was the ability to stand the sight of blood. Willoughby had been dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to assist Henry IV of France in his campaign against the Catholic League in Normandy, so going to war ensured that young Woodall was exposed to revolutionary methods of treating battle wounds that had been developed by the famous French military surgeon, Ambroise Pare. Distinguished for his practical skills, Pare promoted the use of ligatures to prevent bleeding after amputation instead of cauterizing with pitch or boiling oil, as it had always been done before-a humane attitude that, as we shall see, charac-
doctoring in this fashion was Queen Anne's physician, Richard Mead (I673-I754), who was available for consultation at Tom's Coffee House in Covent Garden, charging half a guinea for advice. After handing over the cash, an apothecary or surgeon would recite the symptoms he had observed in his patient. Then he would humbly wait while the lofty theorist meditated a little before writing out a prescription, the effectiveness of which went unchecked by a bedside visit.
