History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

17S8.1 JOSEPH HAWLEY—PHYSICIANS—TOWN HALL, 85
place of paper money in this Commonwealth, There were
old tenor, middle tenor, and new tenor bills, each held at a
different valuation. The issue of hills this year was to be
equal to coined silver at Gs. 8d, per ounce. It was denominated
new tenor, one pound in value of which was to be
equal to tliroe pounds of previous issues. Five years afterwards
another adjustment was proposed. This emission
was of equal value in silver with the former, but one pound
of the new equalled four ])ounds of the old. The name of
new tenor was applied to this issue, while that of 1736 was
called middle tenor. These enactments, however, did not
check lessening values, and in 1747, old tenor bills were
quoted at seven and one half for one of silver.
Surgeons and Physi- For more than half a century, no pliysi-
*^i*^"*- cian resided in Northampton, and for seventy-one
years the town had been without
a surgeon. The practice of medicine and surgery seem to
have been distinct and separate professions. George Filer,
whose career has been already sketched, was the first
" chirurgeon " here, he having been licensed to practice in
1665. He remained in Northampton but two years, and
there is no evidence that any physician lived in town from
that time till about the year 1730. Nine years more elapsed
before another surgeon came. Dr. Samuel Mather seems
to have been the first resident physician in the place after
the removal of Dr. Filer. The first intimation of his pres-
ence in Northampton, was the payment to him of £20, in
April, 1728, for teaching school. Two years afterwards the
town paid him £100 as an inducement for him to settle in
Northampton and practice his profession. For a number
of years he taught the children and administered to the ills
of both young and old ;
but eventually he abandoned peda-
gogy, taking high rank in his profession, as well as among
the leading citizens of the i^lace.
Settlement of Dr. Dr, Tliouias Hastings practiced both " phys-
Hezekiah Porter. j(;.g g^j-^J chirurgcry "'
iu Hatfield, as early as
l';70. His son Thomas, who died in 1728,
followed him, and they were the only surgeons in this
vicinity for nearly fifty years. During the next eleven