Pages 1-23 contain itemized ledger accounts of the expenses of William G. Wood, a shoe peg manufacturer, beginning in Hartford, 1 November 1847 and ending on 25 February 1849 in Lima, Peru. Expenditures include the purchase of manufacturing machinery, travel costs to Callao and Lima on multiple occasions, travel costs for "Wm. L. Wood" to New York and Boston, purchase and travel costs for "dogs", and miscellaneous sundries. Also noted is income from the sale of shoe pegs and hides. The medical ledger [p. 25-480] by an anonymous doctor contains entries dated 1849-1851. It identifies patients, never by name but by the nature of 1) their complaint or diagnosis including leprosy, abortion, clap, rotten penis, broken arse, gunshot wound, stabbed neck, imperforate vagina, dysentery, hysteria, broken head, sore prick, neuralgia, old lame legs, sore heel, dropsy and fatal asthma; 2) the geographical location where the visit occurred: "Calle Sabala" "Chocolataria" "over the bridge in altos" "the great house" "opposite the Golden Ball" "Calle Judios" "the silk factory" and the "paper mill;" 3) their occupation: the schoolmaster, the watchmaker, [the doctor's] tailor, the English minister, the drunken padre, the "servant at Huth's", "the cigar man" or the "two putas;" or 4) by their description, such as: the German, the pretty girl, the laughing man, the timid old man, the angry woman, the fat woman and the officer. The cost of "1 vis. med." [one medical visit] is between 50 cents and one dollar. Also noted is a return visit date if required. The physician saw between ten and twenty patients per day including Sundays.
