Important medical discoveries were made during Queen Victoria' s reign but in this study Jane Pearson is not so much concerned with medical progress as with the question of how the profession of medicine developed. The book shows how doctors working in Colchester during the Victorian period developed professionally and also investigates the extent to which they effected medical and social change in the town. Prior to the Medical Act of 1858 most doctors worked as individual businessmen, bu...

The decision to build a new army camp in the small market town of Colchester in 1856 was well received and helped to stimulate the local economy after a prolonged period of economic stagnation. Before long the Colchester garrison was one of the largest in the country and the town experienced an economic upturn as well as benefiting from the many social events organised by officers. But there was a downside: some of the soldiers' behavior was highly disruptive and, since very few private so...