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Medical Practices
In the Colonies
During the 1700’s
By: Alex
In the 1700’s, there were only two medical
schools in the country. When people got
sick, there were not many cures. The most
common remedy for an illness was the
housewife giving the patient an herb. If a
patient had to have surgery they would
usually die afterwards.
Hospitals
 Hospitals
were very scarce
 Located primarily in large towns such as
New York City, Philadelphia, Newport,
Rhode Island, and Charlestown, South
Carolina
 Mainly built to confine people who
caught a disease during epidemics
Surgery
 Surgeons
were not trained very well
 Most surgeons were only good with a
knife
 There was no anesthesia
 Patients were given brandy and a stick to
bite down on during surgery
 Surgeons did not sterilize hands or tools
 Most patients died after surgery from
infection
Housewives
 Housewives
were the nurse for her family
 If skilled enough, could take care of the
entire neighborhood
 Got their knowledge from folk tales and
their mothers
 Used herbs to cure the sick people
Herbs
 Most
illnesses were cured by mixtures of
herbs
 The herbs were consumed raw or
combined with hot water as a soup or tea
Common Remedies
Chalk and Dill- cured an upset stomach
 Bark- cured a fever
 Aloe- healed burns
 Chickweed- when boiled in water, used to
wash injuries
 Rosemary- used as a disinfectant
 Thyme-relieved coughing
 Peppermint-relieved heartburn

Bleeding
 Bleeding
was a way the doctors thought
would get all of the infectious blood out
of a person’s body
 The doctors would cut a person’s vein
and let some of the “bad” blood bleed
out
Lack of good medical practices in the
1700’s was one cause of the average life
expectancy being only 35 years old.
Sources
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http://www.historyisfun.org/pdfbooks/colonial_me
dicine.pdf
http://www.ssdsbergen.org/Colonial/medicine.ht
m
http://www.tehistory.org/hqda/pdf/v41/Volume41
_N3_100.pdf
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=aloe#page=3
http://pics.tech4learning.com/index.php?search=
qsearch&query=colonial+medicine&sfield=1&sord
er=desc&viewmode=2&page=8&mult=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_tea