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 (1609-10) the population dropped from 500 to 60 and in
the spring these 60 almost abandoned Virginia. A deadly combination of
new environment, famine, and epidemic disease, such as typhoid, played
a major part in determining the course of events during the first two
decades of the colony's life, and near death.
After Virginia became a Crown colony, famine and disease no longer
influenced affairs so greatly, not because of the wise administration
of the Crown, but because the colonists had better learned what was
necessary to cope with health conditions in the New World. No longer
did they consider disease and famine minor threats compared to those
from the Indians and Spaniards. They planned their ocean voyages so as
to arrive in the fall and thus avoid the dread summer sickness while
still too weak from the voyage to resist it; they located their outer
settlements on higher and drier land, at the end of the century even
moving their capital to Williamsburg, known for its temperate and
healthful climate.
The physicians and surgeons, however, who came later in the century
were not as distinguished as their earlier counterparts. As the century
passed, many men trained by apprenticing themselves in Virginia.
Whether immigrant or indigenous, the medical men used orthodox European
techniques: they bled and purged, sweated and dispensed drugs, to
obtain these ends. Some of the drugs were native to Virginia and the
colonists exported them for a profit, but the more expensive--and
efficacious--had to be imported. There is evidence that the level of
medical excellence in Virginia lowered during the century; many of the
planters avoided the expensive visits and drugs, even passing laws to
regulate fees and chastise lax and inadequate practitioners.
Women, clergymen, and laymen all treated the sick and wounded of the
period, with the women especially active as midwives; with the clergy
producing such an outstanding medical man as the Reverend John Clayton;
and with the laymen acquiring enough information, perhaps from a few
medical books, in order to practice, themselves, in case a doctor were
unavailable or undesired.