A life insurance medical, 1848

Ralph M. Clement, the applicant, lived about 30 km away in St. Catharines. He was 36 and, I surmise, fairly wealthy. At a time when barter was common in rural Canada, he had adequate funds available to pay a regular insurance premium. Melville noted that 6 months previously he had "attended him once in consultation" when he was "labouring under a bilious type of fever with considerable disturbance of the urinary organs" (possibly an acute pyelonephritis). To obtain a consultation from that distance in early winter would have been expensive. Melville also noted that he saw him occasionally socially, but not as a physician. They were about the same age and probably moved in the same circles. Melville's remarks are written in the clear, flowing hand of the classically educated gentleman of the late 18th century, rather than the spiky semi-legible script that became common in the later Victorian era. His replies are frank and blunt to the point of tactlessness. He makes it clear that he is not Clement's regular medical attendant and has seen him only once professionally. He responds "I don't know" to basically everything. This was probably true, but it is painful to read some of his remarks; from their curtness one wonders if he suspected a degree of chicanery.