In return the physician instructed the young man in Latin, taught him the medical axioms of the times, and let the prospective doctor accompany him as the older practitioner made his rounds to tend to the community sick. This type of medical education could produce good doctors, yet it all depended on the caliber of the older practitioner and how good a tutor he was.  Still this was the only medical education available in the colonies for 160 years and remained prominent well into the 19th century.