length of the labor. In the larger towns and cities fees were somewhat greater.
One may ask what was the annual income of a country doctor. He never spoke of it in that way, but mentioned how much "he put on his books.” He entered on his books not only deferred payments but cash received. A busy and successful country doctor would "put on his books” from $75.00 to $150 per month, depending on the season of the year, with an annual total of from $1000 to $1500 a year. On this he prospered, lived well, bought land, raised a family, and educated his children above the average.
How was he paid? In money to some extent, but also in commodities and occasionally in merchandise and often in service. The following credits are taken from account books of that period. Hay, oats, wheat, potatoes, fruit, cider, maple syrup, live animals such as sheep and pigs, dressed beef and pork, cheese, butter, and cord wood, and in merchandise-cloth of various kinds, yarn and dressed leather. A common method of payment was beeswax which had a ready market.
He also received pay in services, the doctor furnishing the material; for example, "for making me a pair of pantaloons, a coat, a beaver hat, a pair of boots, ruffled linen shirts, a dress or a bonnet for my wife, sun bonnets for my little girls, mittens for my boys, weaving a rag carpet."
These sets of books show surprisingly few uncollected bills, although some were paid very slowly. After a year interest was added to the account, but frequently was deducted to secure payment.
Three years of this type of practice added to the medical education of Dr. Whitman. It cultivated resourcefulness, judgment, and skill, and further prepared him for the career that was ahead of him, and by this experience he was prepared to cope with emergencies which he yet was to meet.
But these particular three years of 1832 to 1835 brought to him a type of education that no physician in America experienced prior to that year. Asiatic cholera had raged in northern Europe in the summer of 1831 and in June, 1832, it was brought to Montreal. In a few weeks it spread through all the region
