From a social context and using contemporary sources, this text explains how the medical profession (physicians, surgeons and apothecaries) developed and functioned in late medieval England. Against a backdrop of high morality, widespread disease and persistent problems of public health, it considers what alternatives were available to the patient, from society doctors to wise women, quacks and hospitals for the sick poor. Medical theories and practices of the time are investigated, along with the often satirical and sometimes hostile attitudes of the man on the street.