Physician's day book, 1811-1817, of Elias L. DuBose, of Darlington District, South Carolina, includes entries indicating that his medical practice began 20 June 1812 and ended in May 1815.

DuBose prescribed bleeding, blistering, purgatives, diuretics, laxatives, and emetics to treat his patients’ ailments. One entry attests that he charged a patient for a "phial of Turlington." Robert Turlington’s patented "Balsam of Life" was a popular British patent medication often utilized by American doctors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There are also entries that hint at the treatment of abscesses, fractured arms, and head wounds.

The day book suggests that DuBose mainly treated adults, with some care for children, but also provided treatment for enslaved African Americans. Included with the volume are DuBose’s notes from a lecture by Professor Physick "delivered in the University of Philadelphia in the year 1811." Dr. Phillip Syng Physick, known as the "Father of American Surgery," was on the medical staff of Pennsylvania Hospital from 1794 until 1816 and went on to become a professor of both surgery and anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. Records indicate that Elias studied there in 1811 and 1812 but did not receive a degree.

Elias L. DuBose was born in 1789 to Elias DuBose, Jr., and Martha Law DuBose, of Darlington District, South Carolina. He died 15 November 1815.