A detailed handwritten invoice 1761-1765 for medical care from Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, a founding father of Philadelphia medicine, early inoculator, and co-founder of the Pennsylvania Hospital

Single page folded manuscript document written on both sides, Philadelphia, Pa., 1765 - a bill from Dr. Thomas Cadwalader to James Wharton for medicine and drugs prescribed from July 18, 1761 through March 6, 1765. Docketing on the back reads: "Mr. James Wharton acct." Measures 6" x 14-3/4 unfolded. Likely in the hand of Thomas Cadwalader and thus signed at top, "Thos. Cadwalader".

This unique Colonial Philadelphia medical bill lists dozens of drugs and medicines, many designated by their Latin name. Noted numerous Cathartics, paregoric, a cathartic for children, mercurial cathartic, and many more.

The bill is to James Wharton, (1732-1785), a member of the prominent Philadelphia Quaker Wharton family. James Wharton was born in 1732 in Chester Co., PA. During the Revolution he was the proprietor of a rope-walk and furnished a large portion of the cordage for the vessels of the state Navy. His brother, Thomas Wharton, Jr., (1735-1778), served as the first President of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War, from 1778 until his death at age 43 in 1778.

Dr. Cadwalader was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia. He was one of the original members of the Philadelphia Medical Society, and the first named of the three vice-presidents chosen when the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge was consolidated with the American Philosophical Society in 1768, of which Franklin was president. In Philadelphia he became one of the first doctors at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he worked for the remainder of his life. It is reported that he saved the life of a son of Governor Jonathan Belcher by the application of electricity before 1750. He also served as a lieutenant-colonel in the militia. Opposed to British rule after 1765, he signed agreements against both the Stamp Act (1765) and tea taxes.In 1751 he became one of the original subscribers and physicians of Pennsylvania Hospital and later, when Penn opened its medical department in 1765, Cadwalader was elected a trustee. Dr. Cadwalader was one of the first to inoculate patients against smallpox - during the winter of 1736-'7 he is mentioned as one of the physicians that inoculated for the small-pox. . He was a founder and director of the Library Company of Philadelphia and a member of the American Philosophical Society, where he served as Vice President from 1769 to 1770. Dr. Cadwalader was called to the provincial council on 2 November, 1755, and signed the non-importation articles. Dr. Cadwalader's professional services during the War of the Revolution seem to have been restricted to the occasional performance of duties laid upon him by Congress and assisting his friend and junior, Dr. Morgan, who was at that time director-general of the military hospitals. In 1778 he succeeded the elder William Shippen as surgeon of Pennsylvania Hospital, and previously, in 1765, he had been elected trustee of the Medical College of Philadelphia, where he gave a course of lectures.

Contributed by anonymous