Victorian Home Remedies
During the nineteenth century, the foundations of modern medicine were being established. However, in Victorian England, there were a lot of shifts in how medicine was practiced during this time as well. Medicine before the nineteenth century was charity-based (Brown). Medical dispensaries, like Aldersgate Street Dispensary, (which were the equivalent of medical offices today) were established in the eighteenth century. These dispensaries were opened and endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians. Due to the rise of poverty within England during the eighteenth century, specifically in London, these dispensaries began to fill the unmet need of outpatient care for the poor from the overcrowded hospitals within London, specifically (Hartston).
However, in Victorian England, there were a lot of shifts in how medicine was practiced during this time as well coming into the nineteenth century. An emerging theme that was coming out of this period was the popularity of alternative medicine. A popular form of alternative medicine was hydrotherapy.
"Indeed, by the mid-nineteenth century, hydropathy could be depicted as belonging to two interacting spheres, the hydro and the home, and as associated with commercial interests as well as with a mission of encouraging self-healing." (Marland and Adams).
Along with hydropathy, there other forms of alternative medicine that we, from a modern-day perspective, may not fully understand or find a bit strange. The strangest, in our opinion, were the practices of (Davies and Matteoni)