Colonial medical practice: a case study of Thomas Cadwalader (1708-1779)

In 1745 Doctor Thomas Cadwalader published his classic treatise entitled An essay on the West-India dry-gripes; with the method of preventing this cruel distemper. To which is added, An extraordinary case in physick. Most experts now agree that it proved to be a report of lead poisoning acquired from drinking Jamaica rum distilled through lead pipes. While its very existence is important in medical history as one of the earliest colonial publications, it is Cadwalader's only publication. What it reveals about medical practice in British America is very informative. This paper presents a character sketch of the colonial American physician and examines Thomas Cadwalader's life and the eighteenth-century practice of medicine as recorded in his Essay and surviving Prescription Book.