ught
to be unreasonable. The surgeon or physician had in court to declare
under oath the true value of drugs and medicines administered, and then
the court decided the just compensation.

The law went on to declare that:

Where it shall be sufficiently proved in any of the said courts
that a phisitian or chirurgeon hath neglected his patient, or that
he hath refused (being thereunto required) his helpe and assistance
to any person or persons in sicknes or extremitie, that the said
phisitian or chirurgeon shall be censured by the court for such his
neglect or refusall.

The legislators also gave the physician or surgeon protection by
providing that their accounts could be pleaded against and recovered
from the estate of a deceased patient--suggesting that patients were
not prompt enough in paying their bills (or perhaps did not survive
treatment long enough to do so). Court records show that the medical
men often took advantage of this provision for collection.

A measure enacted in 1692 indicated a more sympathetic attitude on the
part of the legislators toward the physicians and surgeons. While in
the earlier acts preventing exorbitant fees the court had been ordered
to decide upon just compensation, the later act allowed the physician
or surgeon to charge whatever he declared under oath in court to be
just for medicines. Nor did the act of 1692 make reference to "rigorous
though unskilful" or "griping and avaricious" physicians and surgeons
as had the earlier laws.

References by the colonial Assembly to exorbitant fees were not without
a basis in fact. The conventional charge for the physician's visit,
according to Dr. Wyndham Blanton, was thirty-five to fifty pounds of
tobacco and on occasions the physician, or surgeon, must have exceeded
this fee. An approximate estimate of the value of these visits in
present-day terms would be between twenty and twenty-five dollars. The
cost of medical care was even greater when an unusually large amount of
drugs was dispensed. It is not surprising that many masters did not
provide the services of a physician or surgeon for their servants; nor
that medical attention was given by persons without professional
status. Although these charges seem high, it must be taken into account
that because of the great distances between communities and even
between homes, the physician or surgeon could make only a small number
of visits each week.

County records