Epilogue: Adam Smith on the *absurd prescriptions* of doctors

Did Adam Smith’s direct experiences with some of the most celebrated doctors of his age motivate his remark in The Wealth of Nations regarding the absurd prescriptions of doctors? How could they not have! From his Oxford and Glasgow days (see, for example, here, here, and here) to the final weeks of his travelling tutor years (see here and here), Smith saw a wide range of home remedies and medical treatments first hand during his lifetime, including tar water, leeches, ipecacuanha, opiates, rhubarb, and bloodletting. These, by our standards, “absurd prescriptions” were what state-of-the-art medical care consisted of in the 18th-century Europe. But that said, the line between mere quackery and medical cure in Smith’s day was a fuzzy one, especially if Smith’s private letters–especially the ones he postmarked from Glasgow in March and November 1760 and from Compiègne and Paris in August and October 1766–are any guide. In all, three of Smith’s students became seriously ill, and in two of…