give many examples of the fees of physicians and
surgeons. Of 145 medical bills entered in the York County records
between 1637 and 1700, the average bill was for 752 pounds of tobacco,
or a little less than one laborer could produce in a year. Other fees
were: 400 pounds of tobacco for six visits; 300 pounds of tobacco for
three visits and five days attendance; 1,000 pounds of tobacco for
twenty days of attendance "going ounce a weeke ... being fourteen
miles"; and 600 pounds for twelve daily visits. At the time these
charges were made, tobacco brought between two and three cents per
pound, or the equivalent of approximately fifty cents today.

The surgeon administering the clyster or phlebotomy, those commonly
resorted to "remedies," could be expected to charge thirty pounds of
tobacco for the first and twenty pounds for the second. The surgeon,
and the physician, often charged from twenty to fifty pounds of tobacco
for a drug prescription.

In 1658, Dr. John Clulo presented a bill to John Gosling in York County
which he itemized as follows (in pounds of tobacco):

For 2 glisters [clysters] 040
For a glister 030
For a potion cord.[ial] 036
For an astringent potion 035
For my visitts paines & attendance ...
For a glistere 030
For an astringent potion 035
For a cord. astringent bole 036
For a bole as before 036
For a purging potion 050
For a [cordial julep] 120
For a potion as before 036

Not only does Dr. Clulo's bill give examples of fees charged, but it
supports the contention that the substance of medical treatment during
the century was bloodletting, purging, and prescribing drugs.

Although the physicians of colonial Virginia did charge well for their
services, it should be noted that they were in demand. Their patients,
this would indicate, considered their services of great value, any
subsequent protests notwithstanding.

THE EDUCATION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS

Since the physicians and surgeons did make substantial charges and
since the educated layman could buy his own books on medicine and
practice what he read or since the uneducated could turn to a neighbor
with medical knowledge or to a quack, the question arises as to why the
services of professional surgeons and physicians were in such demand.
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