These were the conditions that existed in colonial America in 1775.   What physicians there were, were under-educated, ill equipped, and overworked.  Public health conditions were miserable, if not totally absent.  The expected life span in 1789 was the only in the mid‑ 30's.  Of governmental intervention to promote health via proper sanitation, aid to the poor, and standardization of food and medicine, only the far distant future would hold much hope for any of these improvements.

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