y, and
names of each medicine."

The importance of medical volumes to the lay library is indicated by
the inclusion of two in the supplies provided by a London agent for a
Virginia plantation in 1620-21. William S. Powell, in a recent study of
books in Virginia before 1624, found that the agent chose _The French
Chirurgerye_, published in English in 1597, and the _Enchiridion
Medicinae_, first published in 1573.

In spite of medical books, the apprenticeships, training in Europe or
England, and the demand for medical services despite a high fee, it is
possible to overestimate the competence of the seventeenth-century
Virginia doctor even by the standards of his own century. An
observation made by William Byrd II early in the next century tends to
reduce the stature of the medical man.

"Here be some men," Byrd wrote, "indeed that are call'd doctors; but
they are generally discarded surgeons of ships, that know nothing above
very common remedys. They are not acquainted enough with plants or
other parts of natural history, to do any service to the world...."
Byrd may have been prejudiced by his father who, although believing
himself facing death, still did not call a physician.

CHAPTER FIVE

Conclusion

PORTRAIT OF A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VIRGINIA PHYSICIAN

Historical evidence does not support Byrd's description of the typical
physician as a discarded ship's surgeon. In contrast, the physician,
whatever his competence may have been, emerges from the sources as a
respected member of the colony who, besides his medical practice,
engaged in farming sizable holdings of land and took part in the civic
life of the colony. His private life was not unlike that of the other
planters who enjoyed some wealth and professional standing. The
reputable surgeon, who could also supplement his income from farming,
probably enjoyed an existence not unlike that of the physicians,
considering that the distinction between them in the New World was
slight.

Dr. Blanton, in his volume on medicine in Virginia, created a lively
portrait of what he imagines from his researches to be the
seventeenth-century Virginia doctor. The doctor is seen:

dressed in knee breeches and jerkin, perhaps adorned with periwig
and cap; not given to church-going, but fond of ale, horse-racing
and cuss words; husband of a multiparous wife; owner of a log cabin
home or at best a frame cottage which he guarded with gun, pistol
and