t capacity about town." The contact of such practitioners
with the white race was due to the fact that the profession of the barber
was at one time united with that of the physician. The practice of
phlebotomy was considered an essential part of the doctor's work. As the
Negro early became a barber and the profession was united with that of
the physician, it is natural to suppose that he too would assume the
latter function. That phlebotomy was considered an essential part of the
practice of the medicine is seen from the fact that it was practiced upon
George Washington in his last illness. An instance of this sort of
professional development among the Negroes appears in the case of the
barber, Joseph Ferguson. Prior to 1861 he lived in Richmond, Virginia,
uniting the three occupations of leecher, cupper, and barber. This led to
his taking up the study of medicine in Michigan, where he graduated and
practiced for many years.

The first regularly recognized Negro physician, of whom there is a
complete record, was James Derham, of New Orleans. He was born in
Philadelphia in 1762, where he was taught to read and write, and
instructed in the principles of Christianity. When a boy he was
transferred by his master to Dr. John Kearsley, Jr., who employed him
occasionally to compound medicines, and to perform some of the more humble
acts of attention to his patients. Upon the death of Dr. Kearsley, he
became (after passing through several hands) the property of Dr. George
West, surgeon to the Sixteenth British Regiment, under whom, during the
Revolutionary War, he performed many of the menial duties of the medical
profession. At the close of the war, he was sold by Dr. West to Dr. Robert
Dove at New Orleans, who employed him as an assistant in his business, in
which capacity he gained so much of his confidence and friendship, that
he consented to liberate him, after two or three years, upon easy terms.
From Dr. Derham's numerous opportunities of improving in medicine, he
became so well acquainted with the healing art, as to commence practicing
in New Orleans, under the patronage of his last master. He once did
business to the amount of three thousand dollars a year. Benjamin Rush,
who had the opportunity to meet him, said: "I have conversed with him upon
most of the acute and epidemic diseases of the country where he lives and
was pleased to find him perfectly acquainted with the modern simple mode
of practice on those diseases.