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- Title
Drugs, Deceit and Damage in Thirteenth-century Herefordshire: New Perspectives on Medieval Surgery, Sex and the Law.
- Authors
Seabourne, Gwen
- Abstract
This article discusses Plomet v Worgan, a case from a thirteenth-century legal record, concerning a medical man's use of a drug (dwoledreng) to obtain sex from a female patient. Issues which arise include: the nature of the drug in question; the nature of surgical practice in this early, provincial, setting; ideas about sexual consent and incapacity and the response of the legal system to such medical misconduct. The case shows the flexibility and complexity of ideas about sexual misbehaviour current in thirteenth-century law and society. It provides valuable material on medieval English medical practice and offers insights into the treatment of medical misconduct before the better-known development of the 'medical negligence' jurisdiction of actions on the case in the second half of the fourteenth century and the growth of professional regulation.
- Subjects
HEREFORDSHIRE (England); UNITED Kingdom; PHYSICIAN malpractice cases; SEX crimes; THIRTEENTH century; RAPE; PHYSICIANS; DRUGS -- Social aspects; HISTORY of surgery; HISTORY; HUMAN sexuality
- Publication
Social History of Medicine, 2017, Vol 30, Issue 2, p255
- ISSN
0951-631X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/shm/hkw053