scimitar; his road a bridle path and his means of conveyance a
horse or boat ... reading ... by candle light, without spectacles;
writing with a goose quill pen; sitting on a rough stool or bench;
eating at a crude table from pewter dishes, without fork or table
knife; having no knowledge of bath tubs; keeping his clothes in
trunk or chest; sleeping, night-capped, on a flock bed in a bedroom
shared by others; dividing his time, which he measured with
hour-glass and sundial, among medicine, politics and farming; often
in court, often a justice, member of Council or Burgesses, and
subject, like his neighbors, to military service.

SUMMARY

Englishmen and Europeans planted Virginia in the New World and brought
the Old World's medical knowledge and medical practices with them. In
Europe and England, the seventeenth century witnessed the perfection of
new and scientific theories in medicine--it was the century of
Harvey--but little original and fruitful in the field of practice--Dr.
Sydenham might be considered an exception.

In Virginia, the prior occupants had accumulated medical knowledge,
too, and the Indians practiced in a manner not completely unlike that
of the whites: bloodletting, purging, and sweating (all to the end of
relieving the body of ill humors or morbid matter). The Indians,
however, did not believe it right or good to impart their knowledge to
the layman, Indian or European; therefore, cross-fertilization between
the two schools of medicine was limited.

In planning for the colony, the London Company took into account that
health would influence the fortunes of the new settlement. The Company
warned the original settlers to choose a site in a healthful location,
but the colonists elected Jamestown Island which was low and moist.
Provided two surgeons by the Company, the original settlers needed not
only more surgeons but physicians as well: the surgeons could treat the
wounds, sprains, and breaks of a military-colonizing expedition, but
physicians were needed to meet conditions that developed in Jamestown.

In subsequent boatloads of settlers, physicians did come--and some were
well-trained and experienced--but the small number that arrived during
the period when the London Company administered the colony (1606-24)
could not meet the demands of disease and famine. During the first
summer more than one-half the original settlers perished: during the
Starving Time