This essay examines the frequency of medical interventions paid for on behalf of the dying in provincial southern England through a study of approximately 18,000 probate accounts in three dioceses (Canterbury, Chichester and Salisbury). Very substantial increases in the propensity to obtain medical relief are noted for all status groups in almost all areas. It seems that, depending on status, individuals in the south-eastc.1705 were between four and twelve times more likely to seek a medical strategy when faced with a serious, life-threatening illness or injury than their counterpartsc.1585. This increase in the use of medical strategies in the face of life-threatening ailments was not accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of practitioners serving the population, but it was accompanied by a rise in the number of practitioners who were described as ‘doctor’ by their clients. It would appear that the medicalisation of the dying in southern England came about through surgeons and physicians more frequently supplying medicines, more regularly acting as general medical practitioners and more often travelling to see their seriously ill patients, regardless of the nature of their qualifications. Finally, the implications for general attitudes to medicine among the seriously ill and dying are discussed, with the conclusion that, by 1700, a form of medical individualism had developed whereby individuals came to see medicines as a natural means of supplementing divine healing power and even a way of facilitating the healing power of God.

(READ 21 May 2004)