Below I include scans from some items in my collection showing some records kept by doctors in New England in the mid-1800s. The documents give some ideas for prices for drugs and prescriptions written,They include:
Boston - 1833 - a document of items a doctor (or citizen?) purchased for his practice: ginger, peppermint, oil of Spruce, etc.
A two-page document dated 1868 from Dr. George Brown of Barre, Massachusetts, with a signed revenue stamp affixed by his autograph on the second page. The goods were purchased from J. D. Wadsworth, a know druggist in the Boston area. Dr. George Brown was superintendent of the "Private Institution for Feeble-Minded Youth" in Barre.
Four pages of a doctors log from the 1840s with dozens of drugs listed that were given out over a period of time.
A receipt given to Dr. Josiah Graves, MD for his costs of visits to tend to the sick., 1874 from Nashua, N.H.
2 comments:
Wow, I continue to be amazed at how you find these documents! It seems being a doctor and an apothecary weren't that different at the time.
Mark -
Thanks so much for the kind comment!
You are right...in the mid- to late-1800s it was not uncommon for a doctor to also maintain his own pharmacy, or not to do clinical practice at all but just dispense medicines and use the MD as a credential to gain business...on the other hand, anyone could buy, sell, or manufacture their medicines.
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