After the Act, which set up the register of qualified doctors and instituted a professional code, the results of medical research began to be shared more widely. Doctors had to learn to cooperate, to call upon colleagues for assistance when necessary and to communicate techniques that worked for their patients. The education and training of doctors developed to feed and support this change. Dr Pearson examines how this was achieved over one or two generations and also considers the degree of agency that was exercised by the town's doctors, particularly within the entrenched power structures in the town's hospitals, and in relation to campaigns for healthier living conditions.

The author looks at how the Poor Law welfare system became a point of contention for the profession, as its relatively poor remuneration for medical officers risked reducing doctors' professional status in general. In Colchester, most of the doctors who served the pauperised section of the community did so for a good number of years and most showed a tolerance and understanding of the difficulties involved in impoverished lives.

Drawing on a wealth of detailed research, Dr Pearson's fascinating account of how these significant changes were achieved in one small Essex town sheds light on a little‐known area of medical history.

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