From the archive: Should doctors swap horse for car?

"As a first step I consider it essential to thoroughly understand the machine. If this is done it is possible to find out the cause if anything goes wrong, and put it right at once. Things will go wrong at first, as with all new undertakings, but most of the troubles are slight if put right at once. I will not say that my car has never gone wrong, but it has always been conquered in the end, and on every occasion I have ridden it home victoriously, and never had to push it.

"I state at once that my car is Decauville 3.5hp; carries two comfortably; and three if necessary."

Dr Harris Langford then sought to advise his fellow practitioners with some useful consumer advice: "A doctor who contemplates starting a motor car naturally compares it with a horse and carriage or trap, and does so in the following ways. 1. Will it do my work as well or better? 2. Is the initial expense greater? 3. Is the cost of maintenance greater? 4. Are there other advantages or drawbacks?

"To take each point seperately:

"1. Will it work? A motor car will go faster and farther than any horse. Will take any hill in reason. It is always ready for use. Is equally practicable in town and country. You can drive it yourself, and it may be left unguarded if necessary.

"2. Initial expense. It is possible to buy a car or motor tricycle of almost any price, and the same applies to a horse-drawn vehicle. Some medical men are only content with a closed carriage, others use an open one in all weathers. Without doubt the latter, in the long run, enjoy more robust health and have more alert minds. The former class cannot at present be easily provded for by automobilism, unless they can be persuaded to change their habits and adopt the fresh air treatment, which, if up to date, they prescribe for their patients."The difficulty is to compare my car with any carriage. In the work it will do it will compare favourably with one drawn by two good horses; but a man may not have more work than one horse can do."

Our man's estimates showed that the horse, carriage and harness would cost between £135 and £165, whereas his car had cost £165.

"3. Maintenance. This is more easily settled, the only point being whether you drive it yourself or have a man to do it." 

For the horse-drawn option, he found forage would cost 12s (shillings) a week, a coachman 21-25s and stable rent at least 15s, giving a minimum total of £2 8s. In contrast, the car required only petrol, costing 5s per week. If a man were desired, meanwhile, his wages would be no more expensive than if he had been employed to hold a whip, and if the doctor were to rent a garage for the car, rather than building a shed at home, that would be about 3s 6d (pence), pushing the total up but still to just 38s 6d.

"I have heard much made about the cost of repairs," continued Dr Harris Langford, "but surely they cannot be greater than the cost of shoeing, vets' bills and stable sundries. The latter could cost £4 to £5 a year alone. Then a horse may die, whereas the car is hardly likely to be damaged to the extent of £40. Pneumatic tyres may wear out, but they last at least as long, and probably longer, than rubber tyres, and nearly all medical men have rubber tyres nowadays.

"4. Advantages. The great advantage to my mind is that when you have finished your work you are not afraid to use the car for pleasure, whereas with a horse you would feel obliged to give him rest. If, for instance, there were a slack day, a delightful picnic could be enjoyed in the country. Again, during the short medical holiday, what a splendid tour one could have, learning, at the same [time], something of one's native land.

"Driving the car is not done without muscular exertion and afford a pleasant amount of exercise, in addition to which we get a good change from ordinary occupations.

"4. Drawbacks. Smell. A writer in the British Medical Journal stated that the smell of the car was not likely to get the doctor into good odour with the country gentry. But my car only smells very slightly, unless lubricating oil has travelled on to the cylinders or silencer, which can be easily obviated. Noise. Some cars make very little noise. Mine is at times noisy, but only when the cogs require lubricating. At the worst I get no noise from the exhaust, which is the most annoying to horses, and is due to a bad or loose silencer.