ABSTRACT
Rather than a story of progress, the history of medicine in Britain between 1780 and 1950 is one of change and continuity. Some aspects of medicine changed radically and sometimes rapidly, in others, new ideas and practices came more slowly. The most radical changes occurred in the role of institutions within medical practice. In 1780, there were few hospitals, offering care to the deserving poor little different from that available in a middle-class home. By 1950, hospitals offered the highest standards of care to the whole population, employing well trained staff and modern equipment. Different patterns of change occurred even in related aspects of medicine. Traditional medicines, prescribed to provoke evacuations, remained in use long after the theory that supported their use had fallen out of favour among practitioners. New surgical procedures to remove diseased tissues had mixed success, and in the case of efforts to transplant gland tissues, were abandoned.
