Doctors and their transport, 1750-1914.

necessary as himself to the pursuit of his practice", the author of the leader in the Lancet was only stating the obvious.' Everyone knew that doctors, whether they practised in town or country, were utterly dependent on getting out and around if they wanted to make a living. So it is odd that when so much has been written on the history of medical practice, so little attention has been paid to doctors and their transport.2 In 1970, the historian F M L Thompson showed convincingly that "horses are as fit a subject for that study as past politics, past ideas, or past buildings".3 Similarly, although horses, carriages, railways, bicycles and motor cars are not the usual concern of historians of medicine, I intend to show that all of these played a conspicuous part in the lives of medical practitioners, and that changes in methods of transport between 1750 and 1914 had a profound effect on medical practice. With today's system of health centres, clinics, and appointments, it is easy to forget that before the First World War a large proportion of medical consultations were what the British call "home visits" and Americans "house calls". There were,