"In the last two months of 1798, Dr. Frederick May saw patients in the hospital fifty times. He bled six times and gave twenty-four doses of cathartic, probably calomel."
Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital, page 141
The scan of a photocopy of a bill for two months of May's services is below. To be sure there were other cathartics than calomel but during the yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia that became the most frequently used and highly regarded medicine for clearing a patients bowels. It was also sweet tasting. As I note in the book, May also treated a case of venereal disease that month. Now that I take a closer look at the bill (putting documents in digital format can help seeing them!), I see that the bill is for the whole year and the last two months charges are for $57.10. In the book, I suggest the commissioners were alarmed at a total two month bill for $325.60, but that was the bill for the year. However, the commissioners did think the charges exorbitant and tried to get other doctors to agree with them. They didn't "allow" payment until April 1800. Below the doctor's bill I add the letter the commissioner sent to another doctor asking his opinion on May's charges.
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