This is a bit unfair, all doctors were fucking terrible before the late 19th century, and lowered the lifespan of everyone they touched. They also seemed to prescribe mercury for everything.
The only rational use for a doctor back then was if you needed emergency surgery because you were going to die very soon. It was a situation that they could only make better.
The problem, I guess, is that the confidence and authoritative tone of doctors has been identical from back then, when their interventions were at best useless and on average murderous, to now, when they have some chance of improving your outcome. Upper-class people fell for it, to their peril.
The only rational use for a doctor back then was if you needed emergency surgery because you were going to die very soon. It was a situation that they could only make better.
The problem, I guess, is that the confidence and authoritative tone of doctors has been identical from back then, when their interventions were at best useless and on average murderous, to now, when they have some chance of improving your outcome. Upper-class people fell for it, to their peril.