Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson’s Account with Frank Carr, [after 1 June 1816]

Account with Frank Carr

[after 1 June 1816]

Thomas Jefferson in acct with Frank Carr

  Dr
1813   $
Decr  3.  To visit negro woman at night from Monticello to Bacon’s   2.00
 4. To bleeding &c Evelina 1.$ (1814 July 13.) visit &c Negro Woman (Minerva) 3$   4.00
 
1814
July 14. To visit &c Minerva 3.$ (16th) Visit &c Minerva 3.$ (17.) med: & adv: Minerva 2$   8.00
19. To visit &c Minerva 3$ (21) ditto ditto—ditto 3.$ (23) ditto ditto 3.$   9.00
25 To1 visit &c Minerva 3:$ (1815 Mar 3) Visit & bleedg Jesse 3$ 29.   6.00
1815
Mar  8 To2 med: & adv: Jesse 2$ (10) Visit Jesse from Monticello 1.$ (18) passg visit do 1.50   4.50
May— 10 Visit med: & adv: Aggy 3.$ (16) passing visit &c Aggy 1.50   4.50
22 Visit Aggy 3.$ large Box Ungt Merc: 75. 24 pill Merc: 1$   4.75
27. To visit Aggy 3.$ (June 1) visit &c Aggy 3.$ (4th) visit &c Aggy 3.   9.00
July 14. To visit Negroes 3 med: & adv: Aggy & Jesse 4. (19th) visit med: & adv: Aggy. 3.  10.00
22 To visit &c Aggy3 3. (24) ditto ditto ditto 3. (26) xii pulv: op: & Ipec: 50.   6.50
29. To visit &c Aggy 3. 42.25   3.00
1816
Feby  6 To visit & reducing fractured thigh Boy Joe at Lego. reducing ditto twice displaced sundry medicines visits &c up to March 5th }  30.00
29. To visit med: & adv: Sally at Bacon’s—3.   3.00
Mar  7. To passing visit Sally 1.50 lancing her breast 1.50 (14) visit do &c 3.   6.00
15. To i Borax 37½ i Corrosive Sublimate 1.25   1.62½
xii pill op: &c Sally 50. Box long L. Cerate 37½   0.87½
17. To Reducing Moses’ Fractured leg Sundry med: daily4 visits & attentions to final Cure Apl 21. }  25.00
 
27. To visit Sally at Bacon’s 3.$ xii pulv: Tonic &c 50   3.50
April.  9. To visit &c Sally 3.$ (May 15) visit &c Mrs Marks 3.$ (21) ditto do 3.   9.00
May. 23. To ℥i Flour Sulph: & Cream: Tart. 75. (June 1.) Pulv: Col: 37½: Ungt Herp: 50. 80.62½   1:62½
$151 87½

MS (ViU: TJP-CC); in Carr’s hand, with three underlined annual sums in penultimate column written by TJ; undated; notation by Carr on verso: “mr Thos Jefferson with Frank Carr} acct $151.87½”; endorsed by TJ: “Carr Dr Frank. 1813. Dec. 3.–1816. May 23 151.87½ D”; with additional calculations by TJ beneath endorsement: “

1814   29
1815  42.25
1816  80.62½
151.87½
11.64 interest
163.51
.”

TJ reworked his calculation of interest on the verso from $9.90 to $11.64 and the total owed from $161.77 to $163.51. He probably arrived at the revised figures about 2 June 1817, when he gave Carr an order on Gibson & Jefferson “for 164.D. amount of his medical account” (MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1334).

Unguent of mercury (ungt merc:) was used to treat symptoms of venereal disease. Pulverized opium (pulv: op:), on its own or mixed with lard, provided a soothing dressing. ipec:: “ipecac.” is the apothecary symbol for a troy ounce, which is approximately 31.1 grams. Mercuric chloride (corrosive sublimate) was used to treat venereal disease. Lead cerate (l. cerate), flores sulphuris (flour sulph:; sublimed sulphur), and cream of tartar (tart.), when mixed with molasses, could all be taken orally to remedy skin diseases and eruptions. Pulverized colocynth (pulv: col:), made from the dried fruit of Citrullus colocynthis, was used as a cathartic (John Hunter, A Treatise on the Venereal Disease, 3d ed. [London, 1810], 41, 261, 310–2; Edward S. Lang, Medicine Chests: with Suitable Directions [Salem, Mass., ca. 1800]; William T. Brannt and William H. Wahl, eds., The Techno-Chemical Receipt Book [1887], 167; Oscar Oldberg, A Manual of Weights, Measures, and Specific Gravity [1885], 96–100; John S. Billings, The National Medical Dictionary, 2 vols. [1890]; OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ).

1Superfluous ditto mark in front of this word editorially omitted.

2Superfluous ditto mark in front of this word editorially omitted.

3Carr here canceled “& Jesse.”

4Word interlined.

Index Entries

  • Aggy (TJ’s slave); medical care of search
  • Bacon, Edmund; Monticello overseer search
  • Carr, Frank; account with TJ search
  • Carr, Frank; as physician search
  • Evelina (TJ’s slave; b.1797); medical treatment for search
  • health; and treatments search
  • health; fractured bones search
  • health; of slaves search
  • health; skin diseases search
  • health; venereal diseases search
  • Hughes, Joe (TJ’s slave; b.1805); medical treatment for search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Business & Financial Affairs; account with F. Carr search
  • Jesse (TJ’s slave; b.1790); medical treatment for search
  • Marks, Anne Scott Jefferson (TJ’s sister; Hastings Marks’s wife); health of search
  • medicine; bloodletting search
  • medicine; cathartics search
  • medicine; colocynth search
  • medicine; cream of tartar search
  • medicine; flores sulphuris search
  • medicine; ipecac search
  • medicine; lancing search
  • medicine; lead cerate search
  • medicine; mercury search
  • medicine; molasses search
  • medicine; ointments search
  • medicine; opium search
  • medicine; sulfur search
  • mercury; as medicine search
  • Minerva (TJ’s slave; b.1771); medical treatment for search
  • molasses; mixed with medicine search
  • Moses (TJ’s slave); broken leg of search
  • opium; medicinal search
  • Sally (TJ’s slave); medical care of search
  • slaves; health of search
  • slaves; medical treatment for search