Massachusetts · Statutes
The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony
The 1672 compilation prints a provision dated 1649 regulating surgeons, midwives, physicians, and others caring for the body. It restricts force, violence, and cruelty and specifies professional advice and the consent of a patient competent to consent.
Checked source available. Collection target: Revised and reprinted by order of the General Court, 1672
The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusets Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony · Revised and reprinted by order of the General Court, 1672 · 1672
No missing numbered content identified in a bounded sequence review The printed title page identifies Cambridge, Samuel Green, John Usher of Boston, and 1672. The printed law at page 28 ends with the date 1649. Preserve the distinction between the compilation’s publication year and the provision’s stated date. The source is a microfilm scan of the seventeenth-century printing. It is distinct from the separately retained 1887 facsimile. The cited heading reads “Chirurgions, Midwives, Physitians.” The complete provision is visible at printed page 28, PDF page 30. Its stated conditions include advice from persons skilled in the same art, if available, or some of the wisest and gravest persons then present, together with the patient’s consent if competent. The 209-page PDF, repository scan sequence, and OCR object count agree. The main laws run through printed page 161, forms continue through page 170, an unnumbered table follows, and a six-page 1672 supplement is appended. No missing numbered content was identified in the bounded sequence review. The scan has spots, uneven contrast, soft type, visible gutters, and vertical microfilm marks. The cited provision is legible. Repository OCR is substantially inaccurate, including its reading of the title year. Verify quotations against the page images.
Open reader → Download this PDF
The printed title page identifies Cambridge, Samuel Green, John Usher of Boston, and 1672. The printed law at page 28 ends with the date 1649. Preserve the distinction between the compilation’s publication year and the provision’s stated date.
The source is a microfilm scan of the seventeenth-century printing. It is distinct from the separately retained 1887 facsimile.
The cited heading reads “Chirurgions, Midwives, Physitians.” The complete provision is visible at printed page 28, PDF page 30. Its stated conditions include advice from persons skilled in the same art, if available, or some of the wisest and gravest persons then present, together with the patient’s consent if competent.
The 209-page PDF, repository scan sequence, and OCR object count agree. The main laws run through printed page 161, forms continue through page 170, an unnumbered table follows, and a six-page 1672 supplement is appended. No missing numbered content was identified in the bounded sequence review.
The scan has spots, uneven contrast, soft type, visible gutters, and vertical microfilm marks. The cited provision is legible. Repository OCR is substantially inaccurate, including its reading of the title year. Verify quotations against the page images.