From this particular Virginia law of 1736 it would appear that some if not all medical charges had gotten well out of line—the correct line, of course, being what the people and their elected representatives thought was reasonable:
II. BE it therefore enacted, ...
That from and after the passing of this act, no practicer in phisic, in any action or suit whatsoever, hereafter to be commenced in any court of record in this colony, shall recover, for visiting any sick person, more than the rates hereafter mentioned: that is to say,
Surgeons and apothecaries, who have served an apprenticeship to those trades, shall be allowed,
£ s d For every visit, and prescription, in town, or within five miles 00 5 00 For every mile, above five, and under ten 00 1 00 For a visit, of ten miles 00 10 00 And for every mile, above ten 00 00 06 With an allowance for all ferriages in their journeys. To Surgeons, For a simple fracture, and the cure thereof 02 00 00 For a compound fracture, and the cure thereof 04 00 00 But those persons who have studied phisic in any university, and taken any degree therein, shall be allowed,
For every visit, and prescription, in any town, or within five miles 00 10 00 If above five miles, for every mile more, under ten 00 1 00 For a visit, if not above ten miles 1 00 00 And for every mile, above ten 00 1 00 With an allowance of ferriages, as before.
| £ | s | d | |
| For every visit, and prescription, in town, or within five miles | 00 | 5 | 00 |
| For every mile, above five, and under ten | 00 | 1 | 00 |
| For a visit, of ten miles | 00 | 10 | 00 |
| And for every mile, above ten | 00 | 00 | 06 |
| With an allowance for all ferriages in their journeys. | |||
| To Surgeons, For a simple fracture, and the cure thereof | 02 | 00 | 00 |
| For a compound fracture, and the cure thereof | 04 | 00 | 00 |
| For every visit, and prescription, in any town, or within five miles | 00 | 10 | 00 |
| If above five miles, for every mile more, under ten | 00 | 1 | 00 |
| For a visit, if not above ten miles | 1 | 00 | 00 |
| And for every mile, above ten | 00 | 1 | 00 |
| With an allowance of ferriages, as before. |
Lest it appear that all Williamsburg “practicers” made a habit of charging excessive fees, the generous treatment an earlier doctor gave at least one of his patients must be set down. George Hume, a Scottish merchant who came to Virginia about 1722 and soon caught all the prevalent ills, found the place “only good for doctors and ministers who have very good encouragem’nt here.” One of the “common distempers” that afflicted Hume was dysentery, then called the flux. He was laid so low that Dr. John Brown all but despaired of his life. Hume’s gratitude for being cured was doubtless enhanced by the fact—carefully reported to his Scottish relatives—that “ye Dr. took nothing for my druggs.”
The third section of the act, specifying exactly what the “practicer of phisic” should set forth in his bill, bears if least a faint augury of modern food-and-drug labeling legislation:
III. And to the end the true value of the medicines administered by any practicer in phisic, may be better known, and judged of, Be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That whenever any pills, bolus, portion, draught, electuary, decoction, or any medicines, in any form whatsoever, shall be administered to any sick person, the person administering the same shall, at the same time, deliver in his bill, expressing every particular thing made up therein; or if the medicine administered, be a simple, or compound, directed in the dispensatories, the true name thereof shall be expressed in the same bill, together with the quantities and prices, in both cases. And in failure thereof, such practicer, or any apothecary, making up the prescription of another, shall be nonsuited, in any action or suit hereafter commenced, which shall be grounded upon such bill or bills: Nor shall any book, or account, of any practicer in phisic, or any apothecary, be permitted to be given in evidence, before a court; unless the articles therein contained, be charged according to the directions of this act.
This final section reveals that some differentiation between the branches of the medical profession had already begun in America. The tip-off is the phrase that imposes on “any apothecary making up the prescription of another” the same requirements as on physicians who make up their own prescriptions.
THE DOCTORS OF WILLIAMSBURG
If competition tends to keep prices low, fees charged in and around the capital city in the early eighteenth century should have been at the rock bottom level. Governor Gooch in 1729 reported to London that Williamsburg abounded in physicians. The same year young Adam Cunningham gave up his brief effort to establish himself in practice as a doctor: