Up to the middle of the nineteenth century medicine was practised by a variety of people: physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, bone setters and various irregular practitioners or quacks. Physicians were well educated and learned men who had studied the classics and the works of Galen. The surgeons attended lectures and demonstrations in anatomy. In reality, medical knowledge regarding disease and its management was minimal. The present paper is an overview of the education and training of those who practised in medicine before the subject began to develop into a science.