Medical Fees in the Colonial Period *

A comparison of physicians' fees in the Colonial period with those of today should reveal much of interest and value. Numerous daybooks are available establishing the sums paid to the physician in the currency of the time, but obviously direct comparisons cannot be made because of the change in the purchasing value of the units. Consultation with historians, sociologists, and economists has indicated that little is known of the costs of living in the Colonial period. Therefore, it was a happy accident when I stumbled on a brief note in the New England Quarterly of 1932 which transcribed in some detail three family budgets for the year 1728. These budgets had been called forth by a controversy over ostentation and luxurious living. One well-meaning publisher printed in the November 25, 1728, issue of the New England Journal a "fair and easy computation of the necessary expenses in a family of but middling figure." This document evidently stirred up considerable interest since the following week a gentleman, who signed himself "Experience Thrifty," took exception to the budget on the ground that the publisher had "stretcht out the charge beyond all limits of reason and experience." To prove this, he offered a substitute which was somewhat lower and included a number of items not in the first budget. On December 5, the Boston News Letter carried a third budget, sent in by one "Mr. Moderator," who felt that the first was too high and the second too low. He offered as his "accompt" a budget midway between the two. The first budget provided two hundred and sixty-five pounds, eighteen shillings, and nine pence for a family Qf eight persons, for one year, but this budget carried no items for house rent or fuel, for condiments, for hospital and nursing, for schooling, for lyings-in, for sickness, for clothing, or for charity. The second budget allowed two hundred and forty-four pounds, seventeen shillings, one pence for a family of nine, for one year, but this included butter, cheese, drink, clothing and shoes, and pocket expenses of two pence per day. The third budget, computed after the schedule of budget number