New York doctors and London medicines, 1677.

LESS than thirteen years after English government supplanted Dutch the townsfolk of New York were being cared for by at least three doctors, Philip Lane, Daniel De Hart" and Hans Kierstede.2 Two manuscript sources reveal what medicines were in vogue and one manuscript shows that they were imported from London. The documents are certainly among the earliest, if not actually the earliest, evidence concerning remedies employed by physicians in British North America. Dr. Philip Lane died intestate before 8 May 1677, for on that date the Mayor's Court of New York City ordered that an inventory and appraisal of his estate be made. His widow, Mary, petitioned for letters of administration, which were granted her on 15 August.3 Actually the inventory," taken on 18 May consisted of two parts. The first, made by Nicholas Bayard5 and John Inians, listed Lane's wearing apparel, a plain gold ring with a Bristol stone, account books and papers and 'one browne stone horse running in ye woods which Capt. Nicolls gave unto ye said Doct. Lane'. Captain Richard Nicolls was the first governor of New York, 1664-1667,7 so Dr. Lane must have been in the province by or before 1667. Furthermore, the fact that