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This paper is a comparative study of debts for medical services among the populations of Perche (Low-Normandy, France) and Quebec during the 1690s, 1740s and 1770s, as presented in metropolitan-colonial reports. This socioeconomic study presents the social and geographic characteristics of patients who needed medical services, the debts incurred, the popularity of practitioners, and the level of medicalization in these two areas.

In this XVIIIth century end, between the official drugs of the apothecaries and the remedies of "Empiriques", a common point : their price which makes them dissuasive for the poor people. Since 1710, the royal capacity sets up in the parishes a distribution at moderate price of the drugs for neediest : "les boîtes d'Helvétius" (medicine chest) will be the first steps of a free medical care.