The discussion separates the practice of history from the modern degree system because historians existed before universities required doctorates for academic careers. The academic title doctor also predates its general use by physicians, so PhD holders did not borrow the honorific from medicine. Surgeons followed a distinct professional route through the barber-surgeon tradition and were conventionally called Mister rather than Doctor in Britain. The brief aside explains why academic and medical titles overlap without sharing identical institutional histories.
Notable Point · 2:35:40-2:36:11
Why academics were doctors before physicians
The title doctor began in academic learning before medicine adopted it, while surgeons followed a separate path from the barber-surgeon tradition.