Why was Sir Humphry Davy apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary?

Sir Humphry Davy was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary in 1795, one year after the death of his father, Robert. He entered this apprenticeship with the specific intention of eventually qualifying in medicine.1

At that time, a surgeon-apothecary combined the roles of preparing and selling medicines with performing hands-on medical procedures, such as setting bones or bloodletting. While Davy began his career path in this medical field, his focus shifted toward the serious study of science by 1797, eventually leading him to become one of the most prominent chemists of his era.231