[Snoop, scandal, slander. Changing manners in the medical profession]

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century medical men were rather secret about their therapies, instruments and techniques. In their discourses they pictured their rivals as worthless, incompetent characters, unfit for the medical profession. This article states that this manner of conduct was connected with the relation between physician and patient, as physicians were highly dependent on their patients' patronage. The rivalry between all kinds of medical professionals originated from this situation in which the physician's conduct was directed by his patient's patronage rather than by his medical capability. This doctor-patient relation changed during the nineteenth century. The development of the hospital from a place to die to a place to get the best medical care accompanied this change. In the hospital, physicians started to work as partners instead of rivals, they developed their therapies and techniques together, whereas the patient lost his influence on the physician's behaviour.