who employed him in filling prescriptions and compounding medicines.

At the end of four years with Page, Crabbe returned to Aldeburgh. After serving as his assistant, he took over the apothecary of James Maskill. Crabbe read, studied, and learnt anatomy by dissecting dogs. A year later, he put his apothecary shop in the hands of a neighbouring surgeon and went to London to acquire medical knowledge, where he heard the lectures of the Scottish midwives Orme and Lowder, who followed Dr William Smellie's