Wesley's Engagement with William Cadogan on the
WESLEY'S ENGAGEMENT
WITH WILLIAM CADOGAN'S
DISSERTATION ON THE GOUT,
AND ALL CHRONIC DISEASES
(1771-74) An Introductory Comment In the twenty-first century gout is classed among the 'rheumatic' diseases, a group of painful inflammatory disorders that affect the joints, muscles, or connective tissue. Within the group, gout is probably the most common after osteoarthritis. Gout is experienced as an attack of sudden burning pain, stiffness, and swelling in a joint, particularly of a big toe—but it can attack other joints in the foot, ankle, knees, or elsewhere. These attacks can happen recurrently and over time can harm joints, tendons, and other tissues. It is now understood that gout is due to elevated levels of uric acid in the blood, sparked by a combination of diet (particularly high intake of meat and beer) and genetic factors. At high levels, uric acid crystallizes and the crystals deposit in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues, resulting in the inflammatory attacks. The immediate attacks are treated with drugs to reduce the inflammation, but the underlying causes must be addressed by diet and lifestyle changes.
As the classification 'rheumatic' might suggest, gout has been recognized and treated as a disorder since at least fifth century BCE in Western cultures. It was understood largely within the model of the four humours up into the eighteenth century.1 'Rheum' is derived from a Latin word for 'flowing'. It named the watery or mucous secretions that flow from the eyes, nose, or mouth; but it was also used for the 'flowing' of humours within the body—or the results of such flowing. The English word 'gout' traces to another
Latin word, gutta, meaning 'a drop'. In the classic model, gout was 'The following summary draws particularly on Roy Porter and G. S. Rousseau,
Gout: The Patrician Malady (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), chapters 2-7.
Medical and Health Writings attributed to the morbid remains of one or more of the four humours flowing or 'dropping' into a joint (or an organ, like the stomach), causing swelling and pain.
From the earliest medical consideration it was clear that gout did not affect the population equally. It struck adult males much more than children or females—leading Hippocrates to quip that gout never developed in men before puberty, or in women before menopause. It was also more predominant among the upper classes. As a writer of Wesley's time put it, 'This disease is not bred in prisons or work-houses, nor engendered in the galley or the mine; but owes its production to the table of the epicure and the abuse of delicious wine.'2 * The first treatise on gout published in the English language was apparently in 1669 by Benjamin Welles.' But the most influential treatise prior to the eighteenth century was by Thomas Sydenham.4 5 In his treatise Sydenham stressed a distinction that shaped discussion through the next century. He argued that gout was not an 'acute disease' (like an infection), which could strike anyone at any time by accident; it was instead a 'chronic disease', a disorder to which persons became susceptible by failure to care for their health.'' In particular, it attacked 'those old men who . . . indulged themselves freely with splendid banquets, wine, and other spirituous liquors'.6 Sydenham suggested that these practices inhibited the proper digestion of the humours, allowing them to build up and 'fall' into joints, etc. For this reason he questioned reliance on the traditional practices of bleeding, purges, and sweating to treat gout, deeming them largely ineffective. Indeed, he argued that use of purges and emetics w as counterproductive, because they drove the morbid humours back to stomach, while the body had naturally pressed them out to the extremities to lessen their damage.7 For the discomfort of specific attacks, Sydenham prescribed laudanum
(a tincture of opium) and diet-drinks that excluded herbs that pro2 Richard Blackmore, Discourses on the Gout, Rheumatism, and the King's-Evil
(London: J. Pemberton, 1726), 60.
'Benjamin Welles, A Treatise of the Gout, or Joint Evil (London: Herringman, 1669).
Sydenham, Treatise of the Gout and Dropsy (London: Robinson, et alia, 1683); rather than reprinting separately, this was incorporated into Sydenham's .4
Collection of Chronical Diseases (London: Henry Bonwicke, 1692), 86-143. Since the original treatise is so rare, we will cite from the 1692 collection.
5 See Sydenham, Collection, 112-14.
Tbid., 86.
7 Ibid., 102.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
mote heat in the stomach.8 But his greater attention was directed to preventing attacks, for which he recommended moderation in diet and use of alcohol, combined with exercise. To those already prone to attacks, Sydenham insisted that there could be no 'cure' by medicines alone; rather they should focus on changing the habit of their whole life.9 But he implied that those just beginning their lives might avoid gout altogether by consistent proper regimen, unless they have the misfortune that their fathers had the disease 'when they begat them'.10
Given that its sufferers included nobility, politicians, popular writers, and many medical doctors, gout became a prominent literary topic in the eighteenth century, in both medical and popular settings. Sydenham was a hero for the first generation of the century and his stance broadly set the tone. He also gave fodder for the two most lively debates. One debate sought to account for the frequent recurrence of gout within certain (wealthy) families. Could it be that a propensity to gout was inherited? Sydenham's comments in this regard were ambiguous. So was John Hancocke, in a 1722 treatise that left it an open question whether there was such a thing as 'hereditary gout'.* 11 By contrast, four years later Richard Blackmore took it for granted that some cases of gout were hereditary, and that these were the hardest to treat—the best that one could hope for was to postpone their onset.12 By 1730 it was common to accept 'hereditary gout', while recognizing also cases that were 'adventitious', occurring in persons with no prehistory in the family.13
William Grant represented the dominant view by the last quarter of the century—that 'gout is hereditary, as much as any disease can be. It is not a disease of any one humour, nor of any one organ, but of the whole constitution. It may be called the temperamentum arthriticumA4 8 Ibid., 139, and (on drinks) 110-11, 125-26.
'Ibid., 119-34.
10 Ibid., 97-98.
11 John Hancocke, Febrifugum magnum; or, Common water the best cure for fevers, and probably for the plague (London: Halsey, 1722), 65. JW cited this book in Desideratum, Preface, §4. l2Blackmore, Discourses, 74-76.
13 See John Allen, Dr. Allens Synopsis medicinae; or, A Brief and General Collection of the Whole Practice of Physick (London: et alia, 1730), 1:393. JW used this as a major source for Collection of Receipts and Primitive Physic.
14 William Grant, Some Observations on the Origin, Progress, and Method of Treating Atrabilious Temperament and Gout (London: T. Cadell, 1779), 20-21.
Medical and Health Writings The second major debate about gout in the eighteenth century concerned whether one who was afflicted could truly be cured. A steady stream through the eighteenth century picked up on Sydenham's suggestion that gout, whatever its discomforts, was nature's way of preventing more serious acute diseases. This led some to insist that even seeking a cure was ill-considered and vain.1" The board influence of this view is evidenced by Horace Walpole's retort in 1785, 'when I am told of an infallible cure I laugh the proposal to scorn, and declare I do not desire to be cured.... I believe the gout a remedy, not a disease; and being so, no wonder there is no cure for it."6 Anyone who promised an easy cure was considered a quack.
The most 'optimistic' alternative of the time among physicians can be represented by John Hill, who joined Sydenham in maintaining that, while those who suffer gout should not expect a total cure, with proper diet and exercise they can 'blunt the sting of the disease'.1'
The main way in which medical consideration of gout in the eighteenth century moved beyond Sydenham was replacing the explanatory model of the humours with a mechanistic model of the circulatory system. An early adaptor was George Cheyne, who argued that gout was most common in persons who (likely by heredity) had particularly narrow arterioles in their bodily extremities.
This restricted the flow of blood, which resulted in stagnation and precipitates that blocked them further. Cheyne's therapy focused on widening the blood vessels and driving accumulated precipitates out, by such traditional practices as blisters and purgatives. Turning to prevention, Cheyne stressed a regimen of less meat, more milk and herbal diet-drinks, and avoidance of wines and distilled liquors.18 Cheyne's contemporaries, like Richard Blackmore, generally adopted the mechanistic account of gout, even as they differed a bit on regimen—such as defending a positive role for moderate use of wine.19 lsThis argument was made playfully at the turn of the century in Philander
Misaurus (pseudonym), The Honour of the Gout (London: Baldwin, 1699). The case was argued seriously by a physician in Marmaduke Berdoe, An Essay on the Nature and Causes of the Gout, With a Few Conjectures on the Probability of Cure
(Bath: Hazard, 1772), 59.
16Horace Walpole letter, July 25, 1785, in Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, edited by W. S. Lewis, et al, (New Haven: Yale, 1971), 25:597.
''John Hill, The Management of the Gout, by a Physician with his own Case (London: Baldwin, 1758), 1-3.
18 See George Cheyne, Observations concerning the Nature and Due Method of Treating the Gout (London: Strahan, 1720).
19 Blackmore, Discourses, 101.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 571 This was the state of the discussion when William Cadogan
(1711-97) published his Dissertation on the Gout in April 1771.20
Cadogan held the M.D. degree, was a fellow of the College of Physicians, and assumed the mechanistic account of gout that was now standard.21 So his Dissertation might have taken its place quietly among others of the century; except that Cadogan took the minority view on the two debated points of his time. Most notably,
Cadogan attributed gout (and most other chronic diseases) entirely to matters of lifestyle—indolence, intemperance in diet and drink, and vexation (i.e., 'stress')—rejecting any hereditary element, beyond the loose sense that children might learn bad habits at home.22
On the question of cure, Cadogan denied as clearly as any of his predecessors that medicine could cure gout.23 But his confidence in the ability of his proposed regimen to both relieve present attacks and avert future ones struck many as a promised cure. In part because of these claims, Cadogan's Dissertation sparked a vigorous response— in print and in popular culture. Even Samuel Johnson, a long-time gout sufferer, weighed in at a dinner party in 1773, averring that while Cadogan's pamphlet was 'good in general' it was 'a foolish one in particulars', especially 'as it says that gout is not hereditary, and one fit of the gout when gone is like a fever when gone'.24
Surveying the response to Cadogan's Dissertation, the critics often dealt less with the debated issues of heredity and cure than with the 'moralizing Enlightenment attack on luxury' in his elaboration of the causes of (and proposed cure for) gout.2' Some of their ire was directed toward Cadogan's account of what constituted indolence, or caused vexation. But the sharpest retorts focused on his proposed ideal of temperance in diet and drink. At issue here was not only his prohibition of wine and distilled liquors, but his condemnation of such staples of the English diet as smoked and salted meat, pickles, and bread—as well as his invective against the British for typically overcooking their meat!
20 William Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronical Diseases, jointly considered, as Proceeding from the Same Causes; What these Causes are; and a Rational and Natural Method of Cure Proposed (London: Dodsley, 1771). 1 he publication was first advertised in General Evening Post (Apr. 16-18, 1771).
21 See ibid., 19-21 (II.2 of Wesley's abridgement).
22 See ibid., 6-8 (1.7-10 of Wesley's abridgement).
23 Ibid., 4 (sec. 1.2 in Wesley's abridgement).
24 James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson (London: Charles Dilly, 1785), 168-69.
25 Porter and Rousseau, Gout, 104; see also their survey of the response to Cadogan on pp. 107-24.
Medical and Health Writings In a letter published in the Bristol Gazette in 1771 (reproduced below) John Wesley noted that he suffered scattered attacks of gout from the early 1740s. He went on to stress that he 'cured' each attack within a few hours. As this would lead one to expect, Wesley included advice for treating gout from the first edition of Collection of Receipts (1745) through the last edition of Primitive Physic published during his lifetime (1791). Significantly, the first advice offered in Collection of Receipts was an echo of Thomas Sydenham's regimen.26 Two other receipts in that Collection were drawn from Robert Boyle.27 Through the various editions of Primitive Physic
Wesley continued to draw on published and other resources for additional receipts.
Given his personal interest, and his continuing pastoral role of providing advice in physic to his people, Wesley was naturally drawn to a publication on gout that caused the type of stir that attended Cadogan's Dissertation. He was in Ireland when the book first appeared, but read it within a month of his return to Bristol.
His initial reaction, recorded in his Journal on September 9, 1771, suggests that Wesley was aware of the swirling debate:
I read over Dr. Cadogan's ingenious treatise on chronical distempers.28 It is certainly true that 'very few of them are properly hereditary', that most of them spring either from indolence, or intemperance, or irregular passions. But why should he condemn wine toto genere, which is one of the noblest cordials in nature? Yet stranger, why should he condemn bread? Great whims belong to great men.29
For many of the books that Wesley read, such a passing comment in his Journal is all that survives about his evaluation. But issues of health were too important—and Wesley's resonance with Cadogan's general thesis was too strong—for him to pass over this publication so quickly. Within two weeks of the note in his manuscript journal
(the extract of which was not published until 1777), Wesley posted a public letter to the editor of the Bristol Gazette, which appeared in the September 26 issue. In this letter Wesley's driving concern, after commending Cadogan on his 'admirable' book, was to challenge
Cadogan's dismissal of the ability of any medicine to cure gout. Wesley championed a remedy found in Primitive Physic, though he added
26 Collection of Receipts, #112.
27Ibid., #118 and #119.
28 Recall the full title: A Dissertation on the Gout, and all Chronic Diseases.
29JJournal, Sept. 9, 1771, 22:290 in this edn.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 573 'if you afterwards give way either to indolence, intemperance, or any violent passion, your disease will infallibly return'. But this was
Cadogan's point! He did not deny that a particular medicine might relieve a specific attack of gout, only that medicine alone could ever insure 'it would not return again'.30 In other words, Wesley's letter defended the ability of medicine to 'cure' gout in a narrower sense than that which Cadogan had attacked. The two men agreed that there was no hope for curing gout in the broader sense (of averting its return) apart from embracing an altered regimen of life.
Given this broader agreement, one can imagine Wesley's concern that indignation raised by some specifics of Cadogan's prescribed regimen might detract readers from his central point. This prompted
Wesley to prepare an abridged version of Cadogan's Dissertation with the goal—as he put it in his advertisement—of revising or removing those specifics that had been censured 'with some reason' in what was otherwise the 'most masterly piece upon the subject which has yet appeared in the English language'.
Wesley opened his prefatory comments 'To the Reader' with a list of the aspects of Cadogan's advice on diet and drink where he shared the broader public's doubt. Leading the list was Cadogan's warning about the unwholesomeness of smoked and salted meats, which Wesley judged to be exaggerated (§1), though he retained the warning in his abridged version.31 Even more exaggerated in Wesley's view was Cadogan's repeated attack on pickles (§2). In this case
Wesley deleted the strongest attack, which characterized pickles as 'the worst of all poisons'.32 The third advice where Wesley diverged from Cadogan concerned wine (§4). While hardly an advocate of inebriation, Wesley saw no problem in a daily glass of this noble cordial. So he omitted the section where Cadogan encouraged avoiding wine except for its use in medicines; or at most, an occasional glass for sake of society.33 Wesley was even more mystified by Cadogan's strong injunction against eating bread or anything made with white flour (§5), and again deleted the offending passage.34 Finally there was Cadogan's argument against overcooking meat—an advice that Wesley judged to be itself half-cooked and dangerous (§6), leading him to elide this section as well.35
30 See section 1.10 of Wesley's abridgement below.
31 See the abridgement below, section III. 10.
32 See the note on section III.9.
33 Ibid., section III.4.
34Ibid., end of section III.12.
35Ibid., section III. 10.
Medical and Health Writings In addition to these differences on diet and drink, Wesley appealed to personal experience in his 1771 letter to challenge Cadogan's seeming dismissal of any hereditary component in gout. Wesley reiterated this divergence in §3 of his prefatory comments to the extract of Cadogan, though here he offered a charitable reading that Cagodan meant only that most cases of gout were due to lifestyle rather than heredity. Wesley endorsed such a revised claim, and made only minor changes in the relevant sections of his extract.36
Reflecting his general agreement with Cadogan's emphasis on regimen, Wesley followed his prefatory comments on points of divergence with paragraphs reiterating the health dangers of intemperance (§8), indolence (§§9-10), and vexation (or irregular 'passions' §11). As with the abridgements ofTissot, Wesley closed his comments by setting aside the limitation observed by the physicians of addressing only physical cures, and insisting on the interconnection of physical and spiritual health. In addition to adopting any regimen of life, each of us need to receive as well 'the love of God, that sovereign balm for the body as well as the mind' (§12 ).
Some other aspects of Wesley's abridged version of Cadogan's Dissertation, beyond those he acknowledges in 'To the Reader', deserve mention. In the first place, while Cadogan had inserted new material (starting with his third edition) by the time that Wesley prepared his abridgement, comparison suggests that Wesley drew upon the first edition (or unchanged second edition). None of the new material appears in Wesley's abridgement, even in settings where he included the text of the first edition that came immediately before and after the insertion.
Secondly, while Wesley titled his publication an 'Extract' of Cadogan's Dissertation, he did not simply pull out and republish a section. Rather, as with the two tracts by Tissot, Wesley abridged the entire volume, reducing the word count by nearly a third. He accomplished this in part by deleting most occasions where Cadogan provided redundant descriptions or multiple examples, as well as Latin references when the English equivalents were provided in the text. He also removed most of Cadogan's references to historic medical authorities, and eliminated some descriptions that were aimed exclusively at the sumptuous appetites of the wealthy.
Thirdly, several of Wesley's omissions were motivated by more than a concern to reduce the length of his 'Extract'. We have al36 See the footnote added to section 1.6; and the insertion of the word 'necessarily' in section 1.7.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
ready surveyed the motivations that Wesley acknowledged in his prefatory comments. A few other concerns are suggested by comparison of his extract to the original. For example, Cadogan's text has an 'Enlightenment' tone, appealing often to nature as the standard of truth and dismissing religion as superstitious; Wesley's abridgement elided the sharpest instances of this language,37 while retaining confidence in the reliability of nature. Cadogan tended to guarantee the efficacy of his regimen; Wesley's abridgement was more circumspect in its confidence.38 And Cadogan's rhetoric was often paternalistic or dismissive of the sensibleness of the general populace; Wesley generally omitted or toned down this attitude.39
The final point that needs consideration is the setting in which Wesley's 'Extract' of Cadogan's Dissertation appeared. He may have prepared the abridgement shortly after reading the book in September 177E But Wesley's attention was dominated at this time, and through the next two years, with bringing to press his collected Works. If he intended to release his abridged version of Cadogan as a separate tract, it apparently got lost in the shuffle.
In late 1773 Wesley published Vol. 25 of his Works, which was devoted to Primitive Physic and Advices with Respect to Health. Perhaps sparked by this medical focus, the extract from Cadogan's
Dissertation appeared as the first item in Vol. 26, issued early the next year. By 1774 the public debate about Cadogan had subsided, so there was little call to print the 'Extract' as a separate tract as well. There was particularly little need among Methodists, since the basic themes of Cadogan's regimen were already enshrined by Wesley in the section of the Preface of Primitive Physic extracted from George Cheyne.40 But this did not stop Wesley from invoking
Cadogan's name in future pieces like his 'Thoughts on "Nervous Disorders'".41
Given that it was never published as an independent item, Wesley's 'Extract' of Cadogan appears only as a subunit of Works (.Bibliography, No. 334) in this edition. The single appearance also means that there is no list of variants in Appendix A.
37 See particularly the note on section III.9.
38 See the notes on Cadogan's introduction, §2, and section V. 14.
39 See the notes on sections 1.14 and V.7.
40 See Primitive Physic, Preface, §16 above.
41 See 'Thoughts on "Nervous Disorders'", §5 below.
Medical and Health Writings To the Printer of The Bristol Gazette [Bristol] [c. September 24, 1771]
Sir, 1. Dr. Cadogan, in his admirable dissertation on the gout and other chronic diseases, says, 'Though I think the gout incurable by medicine, it is so far from being incurable in its nature that I am
10 firmly persuaded it may be more easily and more perfectly cured than almost any other chronic disease." I am sure it may. I know it from the experience of about thirty years.
2. Many years ago Mr. Sher[r]ington, then of Stratford upon Avon, afterwards one of the warders of the Tower, after being con15 fined by the gout eleven years together, was throughly cured in less than forty hours. Seventeen or eighteen years after, being then in London, he had another visit from it. He had recourse to his old remedy, was cured in a few hours, and had it no more till he died in a good old age.2
20 3. I was riding some years since into Wadebridge, a small town near St. Columb's in Cornwall,3 when a footman called after me and told me, 'Sir, my master begs to speak with you.' His master was a physician, Dr. Ward.4 He said, 'Sir, I was desirous, if ever I should see you, to return you thanks for one of the greatest benefits
25 I ever received in my life. Eight years I was laid up with the gout on that couch. One brought me your Primitive Physic. I used the remedy prescribed therein for a few hours, and have never ailed anything since.'
2 1 William Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, and all Chronic Diseases (London:
Dodsley, 1771), 13.
2 Leonard Sherrington (1679-1759), warder of London Tower, was buried in Bunhill fields, near the Foundery, the Methodist center in London. In §5 below
JW seems to identify the method used by Sherrington as an application of warm treacle. But there is also a report that he was cured in 1744 by taking mineral water from a stream near Stratford upon Avon; see Charles Perry, An Account of an Analysis made on the Stratford Mineral Water (Northampton: W. Dicey,
3 Wadebridge is on the River Camel, about 7 miles northeast of St. Columb Major in Cornwall.
4 See JW, Journal, Sept. 20, 1748 (20:249 in this edn.), where JW breakfasted with a Dr. W. of Wadebridge, 'who was for many years a steady, rational infidel.
But it pleased God to touch his heart in reading the Appeal [to Men of Reason and Religion], And he is now labouring to be altogether a Christian'.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
4. Both my father and mother were troubled with the gout for many years. So that if hereditary right be admitted, I have a fair title thereto. Accordingly I have had it seven or eight times within these thirty years; twice in my right great toe, and five or six times in one or the other knee. But it is a rule with me never to let it stay twelve hours. I have generally cured it in six.
5. I cannot say that I ever knew more than one person who used Mr. Sher[r]ington's method without success. Nor did I ever know one, either man or woman, who found any ill consequence of using it. But undoubtedly the disorder will return, unless those who are now cured take Dr. Cadogan's advice: unless they use constant exercise, practice exact temperance, and avoid all irregular passions.
You may be cured once and again by applying fresh treacle warmed (not Venice treacle but common treacle) and covering the part with flannel or soft locks of wool, renewing the application (if need be) once in twelve hours. ^ But if you afterwards give way either to indolence, intemperance, or any violent passion, your disease will infallibly return, and you will live a cripple, or die a martyr to your folly.
John Wesley
Source: published transcription; Bristol Gazette (Sept. 26, 1771), P-4.
5 This cure appeared in the first edition of Collection of Receipts (see CR, #117 above), and remained through every edition of Primitive Physic (see §121, receipt
#1 above).
Medical and Health Writings An Extract from Dr. Cadogan's Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases1 Advertisement A few things in this excellent tract have been censured with some reason. These are omitted or altered in the following extract. Which
1 therefore recommend to men of understanding as the most masterly piece upon the subject which has yet appeared in the English language.
To the Reader 1. We may give the due praise to Dr. Cadogan's tract without undertaking to defend it in every point. It may be allowed that he sometimes paints too strongly, though I believe with a good design. He knows how apt the generality of people are to aim a little below the mark, and on this account perhaps, sometimes places it higher than otherwise he would have done. With this view he seems a little to exaggerate upon the unwholesomeness of smoked and salted meats.
Undoubtedly these are hard of digestion to all sorts of people, and extremely unwholesome for sedentary persons, as well as those of a weak and tender constitution. Yet I would not condemn them in so strong terms, considering how many thousands in the kingdom live chiefly upon them for many years and still remain in perfect health.
2. Another instance of this exaggeration we have in what he says concerning pickles. It may be allowed that they are not wholesome to persons of a delicate constitution. Perhaps too the using them in large quantities may impair a good constitution. But still I cannot commend the condemning them universally as no less than poison. I really believe a man of a firm constitution might use a small quantity of them daily, yea for forty or fifty years together, without hurting himself at all.
3. Perhaps yet another instance of the same kind is his assertion that there are no hereditary distempers—that, in particular, there is
1 William Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, and all Chronic Diseases (London:
J. Dodsley, 1771). Wesley's 'Extract' appeared only in JW, Works (Bristol: William
Pine, 1774), 26:3-52.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
no such thing in the world as an hereditary gout. He must certainly mean no more than that distempers are not near so often hereditary as we imagine. And that the gout in particular is generally owing to one or more of the three causes he assigns, consequently is contracted by ourselves and not derived from our parents. This may be allowed. And it is a very important truth, though little attended to. The far greater part of our chronical distempers are doubtless contracted by ourselves. But not all. I am living witness of the contrary, even with regard to the gout itself. Those who know me do not charge me with intemperance, either in meat or drink. I am not indolent; I never travel less than five thousand miles in a year. And I bless God I have no violent passions. Yet I have within these thirty years, had frequently the gout (of which my father was frequently ill, and my mother died) nine or ten times.
4. If, therefore, the Doctor really means that there are absolutely no hereditary distempers, I cannot subscribe to this opinion. Neither to his condemning of wine in general, several sorts of which (as Dr. Hoffman shows at large2) are so far from being unwholesome that they are some of the most powerful medicines yet known in some very dangerous diseases. I myself was ordered by Dr. Cheyne3
(not the warmest advocate for liquors), after drinking only water for some years, to take a small quantity of wine every day. And I am persuaded, far from doing me any hurt, it contributed much to the recovery of my strength. But it seems we are to make a pretty large allowance for what the Doctor says on this head, seeing he grants it will do you little or harm to take a plentiful cup 'now and then'.4
Enough, enough! Then it will certainly do you no harm if, instead of drinking that cup in one day (suppose once a week), you divide it into seven and drink one of them every day.
5. I cannot but think if your wine is good in kind, suited to your constitution, and taken in small quantities, it is full as wholesome as any liquor in the world except water. Yet the grievous abuse of it, which almost universally prevails, might easily prejudice a benevolent man against it, and make him endeavour to prevent its abuse
2 Friedrich Hoffmann (1660—1742), Opera omnia Physico-Medica, 6 vols. (Geneva: De Tournes, 1748), 5:341-62. A set of these volumes is present among the Charles Wesley family library at MARC (MAW CW330-32), but they almost certainly belonged to JW originally; see Bulletin of The John Rylands University
Library 88.2 (2006): 135.
3 George Cheyne (1671-1743).
4Cadogan, Dissertation, 32.
Medical and Health Writings by forbidding the use of it. But what could prejudice him against so harmless a thing as bread? 'Nay, he thinks it is not harmless, for if it stand by two or three days in water, it will turn the water quite sour.'5 What if it did? Does the Doctor know that most vegetables are acescent?6 And are they ever the less wholesome for that? But in fact, it does not. I have occasionally (not through design, but forgetfulness) made the experiment over and over. I have in London let a large toast lie several days in water, and the water did not contract the least sourness. So that I cannot but still conceive, of all vegetable food, there is none more wholesome than well-made wheaten bread.
6. If anything in his excellent tract is more whimsical than even his prejudice against bread, it is what he says concerning the wholesomeness of flesh throughly roasted or boiled.' One would wonder anyone should imagine that flesh is more wholesome by being half raw. I regard no theory upon this head. I appeal to matter of fact.
Now how many persons has the Doctor known with whom a proper quantity of such flesh as suited their constitution agreed well when little boiled, and disagreed when much boiled? Has he found twenty such? To this day I have found but one, among the many thousand persons with whom I converse every year. Yea, and I doubt the fact with regard to him. I doubt it is pure imagination, arising from reading the Doctor's book. And this may be the case with others also.
7. But allowing the Doctor is not infallible, allowing him to be mistaken in these and a few other particulars, his general plan is truly excellent. No reasonable man who looks round about him can doubt but ninety-nine chronical distempers in an hundred are occasioned by one or other of these causes which he has so judiciously assigned.
He cannot doubt but ninety-nine in a hundred of those distempers which are supposed to be hereditary are really ow ing to one of these three causes: intemperance, indolence, or irregular passions.
8. The first of these, intemperance, extends much farther than is commonly imagined. For that may be intemperance to one which is not so to another. To every individual it is intemperance to use any kind of food, or such a quantity of any, either meat or drink, as in any degree impairs health. Yea, though the effect do not immediately follow, though it do not produce any present inconvenience. But if this be intemperance, how exceeding few practice temperance in
5 See ibid., 47 n.
6Tending to sourness; or sharp.
' See Cadogan, Dissertation, 43.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
food? And how many gouty, scrofulous, and scorbutic disorders are owing to want of it?
9. The most fruitful source of chronical distempers, next to intemperance, is indolence. But this word also we are to understand in a very wide extent. It here means the want of due exercise; the not using such a kind and such a degree of exercise, at least once every day, as each constitution requires. One would imagine indeed that commonsense would induce everyone to use this. But experience shows it does not. Although it is hardly credible to what degree it is neglected, even by those who have the greatest need of it. 'To how many hundreds' (said Dr. Freind8 to my eldest brother9), 'if not thousands, have I prescribed exercise? And how many have punctually followed my prescription? To this day, I know not one.'
10. Not that any one particular kind of exercise is necessary for all persons. Indeed Dr. Cheyne supposes the natural exercise of walking, where the strength suffices, to be preferable to any other.10 But it should be used every day, not less than an hour before dinner, or after supper. Where the strength will not admit of this, the want of it may be supplied by riding two hours at least on horseback every day before dinner or supper. If neither of these can be borne, the end of both may be answered by riding in a carriage. But then it must be constant, and long-continued; and it will have surprising effects. Dr. P., of Essex," has cured almost all his neighbours who were afflicted with the gout by advising them to ride in their carriages eight hours a day—four in the morning, and four in the afternoon. Those who cannot afford this may use a 'chamber-horse', which will suit every constitution. Add to this a strictly temperate diet, and few chronical diseases will remain long.
11. I believe none will, provided the passions be regular, as well as the diet and exercise. But violent passions indulged, without any other cause, will destroy the finest constitution. As acute passions, anger and joy for example, have been known in a thousand instances to bring on acute distempers, so lingering passions occasion chronical disorders. How often does grief or hopeless love produce incurable consumptions? So true it is, 'the sorrow of this world worketh death',12 temporal as well as eternal.
8 Orig., 'Friend'; Dr. John Freind (1675-1728).
9 Samuel Wesley Jr. (1691-1739).
10 George Cheyne, An Essay on Health and Long Life (London: George Strahan, 1724), 94.
"John Piper (1688-1766); he has no publications, but JW knew him personally.
12 2 Cor. 7:10.
Medical and Health Writings 12. So far the doctor could go. None could more skillfully paint out the source of our disorders. But where is the cure for either lingering or impetuous passions, that either furiously overturn this house of earth, or sap the foundations of health and life by sure,
5 though slow, approaches? Who knows not that the whole materia medica13 is of no avail in this case? The poor patient must cry out still, as did those two thousand years ago, 'Hei mihi, quod nullisAmor est medicabilis herbis!]A Grief, desire, 'hope deferred make the heart sick',15 with a sickness which drugs cannot cure. What can cure it
10 but the peace of God? No other medicine under heaven. What but the love of God, that sovereign balm for the body as well as the mind? And this the poor may attain as well as the rich. For it is to be bought 'without money and without price'.16 It is purchased for us already, 'not with silver and gold [. . .] but with the blood of the 15 Lamb without spot or blemish'.17 It is purchased for all: 'Ask, and it shall be given. [. . .] Everyone that asketh receiveth.'18
20 God's original promise this, God's great gift to all mankind.
Blest in Christ this moment be:
Blest to all eternity!19
This the universal bliss; Bliss for every soul design'd:
' 'The set of material substances used in the practice of medicine.
14 Cf. Ovid, Metamorphosis, 1.523: Met mihi, quod nullis amor est sanabilis herbisV
('Alas, that love is curable by no herbs' - Loeb).
15 Cf. Prov. 13:12.
16Isa. 55:1.
17 Cf. 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
18Matt. 7:7-8.
19 CW, 'The Invitation', st. 4, Redemption Hymns (1747), p. 8.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
Dr. Cadogans Preface [§1.] That men in good health, the young and gay in their career, should be negligent of it or abuse it, refusing to stop and listen to or take warning from others, is no great wonder. But it is very surprising that mankind in general should be mistaken and misled forever in the same perpetual round of fruitless attempts to repair and establish it. Not the ignorant vulgar only, but the sensible, the judicious men of parts and knowledge in other things, in this case blind, should pursue with the same vain hope, after repeated disappointments, the thousand and ten thousand idle arts and tricks of medication and quackery.
It has been of great disservice, as well as discredit, to the art of physic and every fair practiser of it that men's expectations have been raised by the ignorant and presuming, or the honest and artful, to hope for too much from it—more than it ever did, or can do. Respite and relief may be had in most chronic cases; remedy, I fear, but in a very few, if it be expected from art alone. But a skillful and honest physician (unless he be sent for too late and dismissed too soon, which is generally the case) will employ those intervals of relief to introduce the powers of life and nature to act for themselves, and insensibly withdrawing all his medicines, and watching carefully over his patient's whole conduct, leave him confirmed, from conviction of their necessity, in such habits as may establish his health for life.1
Possibly if men were better informed of the real causes of their diseases they might be less unreasonable in their demands, and learn to be contented with present relief, submitting with patience to that plan of life which alone can lead them to, preserve them in, permanent health.2
[I.] A Dissertation on the Gout [1.] However common it may be for men that suffer to complain of the evils of life as the unavoidable lot of humanity, would they stop but for a moment to consider them in the light of reason, they
1 Cadogan's original was 'cannot fail to establish his health for life'; Dissertation, vi.
2JW omitted a section where Cadogan stressed that he had no desire to 'impeach the practice of physic in general' and characterizing 'physic fairly and honestly practised' as 'the first of professions'; ibid., viii.
Medical and Health Writings would find little or no foundation for them in nature; but that every man was the real author of all or most of his own miseries. Most of the complaints which the learned call chronic diseases we most undoubtedly bring upon ourselves by our own indulgences, excesses, or mistaken habits of life, or by suffering our ill-conducted passions to lead us astray or disturb our peace of mind. Whatever notions men have been taught or have received of other causes, such as accidental colds, or particularities of constitution, this or that thing disagreeing or surfeiting, these are too trifling to produce diseases that commonly last for life. There must be something more substantial, something more constant and permanent in our daily habits, to produce such inveterate evils. Though if you read authors or consult practitioners, what do you find but that you have taken cold (though you know not how), or that your complaints are gouty, rheumatic, bilious, nervous, etc.—words that satisfy, though they give no kind of idea, and seem to have gained credit only by the politeness of physicians who, while they are taking their patients money, are too well bred to tell them that it is by their own faults they are ill. To enquire a little further into this matter may be well worth our trouble.
[2.] Did men better understand the nature of chronic diseases in general, and whence they proceed, they could not be so unreasonable to think they might live as they list with impunity, expecting repeated remedy from art. Or did they know anything of the nature of medicine, they would find that, though fits of pain have been relieved, or sickness cured by it for a time, the establishment of health is a very different thing, depending upon other powers and principles. The first may be and often is done by medicine; the other never. That their opinion of medicine is vain and ridiculous must appear very evidently to anyone who recollects that the art of physic has now been practised, more or less regularly, above two thousand years and most assuredly there is not yet discovered any one certain remedy for any disease. Ought not this to make us suspect that there is no such thing? The skillful in medicine, and learned in nature, know well that health is not to be established by medicine. For its effects are but momentary, and the frequent repetition of it destructive to the strongest frames. That if it is to be restored, it must be by gently calling forth the powers of the body to act for themselves, introducing gradually a little more and more activity, chosen diet, and above all peace of mind, changing entirely that course of life which first brought on the disease; medicine cooperating a little. That this is the truth, all who know anything of
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 585 nature or art must know. And I may safely take upon me to say that, though I firmly believe health may be restored in most cases that are not absolutely mortal, I am very sure that no invalid was ever made a healthy man by the mere power of medicine. If this be the case, how must the initiated, according as their humanity is touched, either laugh at or pity the poor foolish world surrendering at discretion to the most ignorant quacks, pretending to infallible remedies which are not in nature?
[3.] At present I would say something of the gout, as I see now so many who are throwing away not only their money very foolishly, but all their future health also, in hopes of a medical cure for it; whereas such hopes are chimerical, and contradictory to every idea of true philosophy and common sense.
[4.] I think the real original causes of all chronic diseases are not many; [they] may be reduced to three: indolence, intemperance, and vexation.
[5.] From one or more of these three causes all, or most, chronic diseases are produced. For different diseases may have the same original cause, the difference proceeding from the various degrees of strength and vigour in bodies. So that what would be gout in one, in another might be rheumatism, stone, colic, jaundice, palsy, etc.
The gout is confessedly a disease of the best constitution, and may therefore fairly stand as a representative of all the rest. As such I shall consider it for the present, and speak of these causes in their order. But it may be necessary to say a word or two of the gout itself before we enquire into its cause.
[6.] The gout is so common a disease that there is scarcely a man in the world, whether he has had it or not, but thinks he knows perfectly what it is. So does a cook-maid think she knows what fire is, as well as Sir Isaac Newton. It may therefore seem needless to say what it is. But I will venture to say what it is not, though contrary to the general opinion. It is not hereditary,3 it is not periodical, and it is not incurable.
[7.] If it were necessarily3 hereditary, it would be necessarily transmitted from father to son, and no man whose father had it could possibly be free from it. But this is not the case, the father's having it inclines or disposes the son to it. This is the causa praedisponent
"That it is sometimes hereditary I know by experience, but I believe not very frequently [JW].
3JW has added the adjective in this case.
Medical and Health Writings of the learned, which of itself never produced any effect at all. There must be joined the causa procatarctica, or active efficient cause— that is, our own intemperance or mistaken way of life—to produce it. And accordingly, as this operates more or less, so will the gout be.
[8.] If it were hereditary it would appear in infancy and in women, which in general it does not. I may be told of some women who have had it. I believe never very young, nor till they had contributed to it themselves. For women, as well as men, may abuse a good constitution. I have heard likewise of a boy or two out of a million that had it. But these boys had been suffered to sip wine very early, and been fed and indulged every way most unwholesomely.4
[9.] If the gout be a disease of indigestion, and therefore of our own acquiring, we must reason very ill, or rather not reason at all, when we say it is hereditary, any more than intemperance. There are whole nations of active people knowing no luxury, who for ages have been free of it, but have it now since the Europeans have brought them wine and spirits.
[10.] If the gout be thought hereditary because it is incurable by medicine, the same may be said of every other chronic disease, none of which ever are cured by it (I mean, so as not to return again).
When was there a man who, having had one fit of rheumatism, stone, colic, etc. however happily relieved by art for a time, had it not again and again, or something worse in the place of it; till he became a confirmed invalid, and died long before his time—unless some very remarkable alteration took place in the course of his life to confirm his health? So it is in the gout. A man gets a fit of it, and by abstinence, patience, time, and nature the crude acrimony producing it is subdued and exhausted, and he is relieved for that time.
In a few months he is taken again. Why? Not from anything inherent in his constitution, but because he returned to that way of habit of life that produced it at first, and will forever produce it while the strength of his body lasts.
[11.] It is natural enough for those who believe the gout hereditary to think it also periodical, as if something innate and inherent in our constitutions produced it at certain times. But this is a great mistake. For if it were periodical, it must be regularly so. The only periodical disease I know of is the intermittent fever, which is as regular as a good clock. The returns of the gout are always very
4JW omitted 'No diseases are hereditary but those of taint or infection, and malformation; the gout is none of these, and therefore is not hereditary'; cf. Cadogan, Dissertation, 8.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 587 uncertain, according to the quantity or quality of the accumulated indigestion within, and the strength of our bodies.
[12.] I come now to show that the gout is not incurable. If by the cure of the gout be meant the administering a pill or a powder or medicine of any kind to do it, I fear the gout is and ever will be incurable. It has been long and often attempted in vain, from the origin of physic to this day. Indeed there is a most glaring absurdity at first sight, that must strike any man of commonsense. If the gout be the necessary effect of intemperance (as I hope to show), a medicine to cure it must be something that will enable a man to bear the daily intemperance of his future life unhurt by the gout or any other disease—that is, something given now that will take away the effect of a future cause. As well might a medicine be given now to prevent a man's breaking his leg or his neck seven years hence. One would think the utmost that any rational man could expect from medicine was that it should have power to relieve and remove present disorders, leaving the body quite free, without pretending to insure it from future injuries. Here lies the error. Men think the gout to be something latent in the body now which, once well eradicated, would never again return. Not suspecting it to be no more than each day's indigestion accumulated to a certain pitch that, as long as the vigour of life lasts, always brings on every fit. Which once well over, the man has no more gout nor seeds of gout in him than he who never had it, and if he did not breed it again, most certainly would never have it again. A proof of this is that the gout has been often cured by a milk diet, which, as long as it lasted, has generally kept the patient free. But this method of cure I cannot approve, because it relaxes and enervates the body.
[13.] Though I think the gout incurable by medicine, it is so far from being incurable in its nature that I am firmly persuaded it may be more easily and more perfectly cured than almost any other chronic disease.5 For it is confessedly a disease of the strongest and best constitution relieving itself by throwing off bad humours from the vitals upon the extremities, where they do least harm to the powers and principles of life and health. And as these humours can be nothing more than the daily accumulations of indigestion, if a man can live without breeding constantly this indigested acrimony, he may most undoubtedly] live free not only from the gout, but every other chronic disease also. And that he may live so with
5 JW omitted 'this is another strong argument that proves it not hereditary'; cf. ibid., 13.
Medical and Health Writings great ease and comfort61 should endeavour to prove, I hope to the satisfaction of all thinking reasonable men.
[14.] I have said that indolence, intemperance, and vexation are the original causes of all or most of our chronic diseases. Every invalid that will be candid enough may trace all his complaints up to one or other of these causes.7 An accidental cold that happens but seldom can have no such effect; and men otherwise healthy, living in good habits, soon get rid of it. It is the constant course of life we lead, what we do or neglect to do habitually every day that, if right, establishes our health; if wrong, makes us invalids for life.
[15.] Men ignorant of the way of nature in the production and support of animals, not knowing what she requires to preserve them in health and vigour to their utmost period, have conceived very strange and very false ideas of diseases in general, and seem to think there are medicines opposed to each that will certainly remove and cure it. This makes them so solicitous to know the name of their complaint; which once ascertained, they think the remedy not far off. Poor men! Is not the gout sufficiendy distinguished? But where is the remedy? Certainly not in the precarious skill of prescribing doctors, or the secret of ignorant and enterprising quacks. They fancy too that there is a great variety of constitution, with diseases unavoidably peculiar to each.
That certain times of life must produce many, and that it is impossible to grow old without sickness of some kind or other. There is certainly no foundation in nature for any of these opinions, nor is there any real essential difference of constitution but of strong or weak, and this is produced more by habit than nature. The strong, by bad habits, will become weaker; and by good, the weaker stronger. But the most delicate frames may be as healthy as the strongest, for the same reason that a sparrow may be as healthy as an elephant. There is no disease necessarily peculiar to any time of life, however the changes into the different stages of it may affect the valetudinary. And it is possible for men to live to great age without any disease at all, for many have lived upwards of an hundred with uninterrupted health.
[16.] Not from the natural defects of our constitutions therefore, but the abuse of them, proceed all our chronic diseases. That is, from indolence, intemperance, or vexation.
6Cadogan's original read '... live so not in a perpetual state of mortification and self-denial, but with great ease and comfort to himself, in the truest, most philosophic luxury'; ibid.
7 JW omitted Cadogan's caustic comment about 'the generality of men, who are so short-sighted as never to look back or forward far beyond the ken of their nose'; ibid., 14.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 589 [17.] Let us now proceed to enquire what must be the necessary effects of one or more of these causes acting daily upon the body.
Whether in the strongest and most vigorous frames, it must not be the gout; in weaker, rheumatism, colic, stone, palsy, etc., or any or all of the nervous and hysterical class.
[II.] Of Indolence
[1.] It seems to have been the design of Providence that all men should labour. That some are rich enough to purchase the labour of others is a mere accident with regard to individuals, in which the care of Providence appears to be no otherwise concerned than having unequally distributed those powers and abilities by which active and fiery spirits rise uppermost to preserve the harmony of subordination, without which society could never exist. The rich and great have so far forgot this first principle of nature that they renounce all bodily labour. And thus sacrificing health to indulgence and dignity, they do not enjoy the advantages of their superior stations, but in happiness fall often below the labouring hind. Nothing undermines the foundation of all our happiness, the health and vigour of the body, like it, or lays such a train of diseases to come.
But I must endeavour to show in what manner.
[2.] It is upon the minutest and almost invisible parts of the body our best health, strength, and spirits depend. These fine parts, commonly called capillaries, are little pipes or tubes, the extended continuations of the larger blood-vessels, through which the finest parts of the blood must constantly pass, not only to keep these very small channels always free and open, but also that the particles of the blood may in their passage be attenuated, broken, and rubbed into globules perfectly smooth and round, and easily divisible into still less and less, till they escape the sight assisted even by the microscope. Now the strength of the heart and arteries alone, in a sedentary course of life, is by no means sufficient to keep up and perpetuate this motion through these capillaries, but requires the assistance and joint force of all the muscles of the body to act by intervals, compress the veins, propel and accelerate the circulation of the whole mass of blood, in order to force and clear these pipes, and to triturate, cribrate, and purify8 the fluid passing through.
8I.e., grind up, sift, and purify.
Medical and Health Writings Without this aid the little vessels would, by their natural elasticity, close up into fibres, or be obstructed by rough angular particles sticking in them and stopping all passage. Numberless evils of the chronic kind, especially all nervous diseases, owe their origin to this cause alone. Inactivity forms obstructions in these exquisitely fine parts, upon which the health and vigour of the body and mind depend, and lays the foundation of many diseases—which other circumstances, such as a cold, excess of any kind, infection from without, or a particular disposition of the body within, often make fatal.
[3.] Now I would ask any reasonable person whether he can conceive it possible to substitute any medicine that shall act upon the blood and vessels like the joint force of all the muscles of the body, acting and reacting occasionally in a regular course of daily labour or exercise? Unless this can be done, there can be no such thing as a lasting cure either for the gout or any other chronic disease. Yes sir, says a practitioner, cordials, volatiles, bracers, strengtheners will do this, will keep up an increased circulation. Possibly they may for a few hours. But their action soon subsides, and the stimulus ceases.
They must therefore be repeated and repeated for life. And woe be to him that takes them, and to him that leaves them off, unless it be done with great judgment. While they act, they coagulate the juices and corrupt the whole mass of blood. And when omitted, the patient must feel all the languors and horrors of a crapulary fever; and must have recourse to them again and again, like a dram-drinker who cannot bear his existence but in a state of intoxication.
[4.] But these obstructions from crude particles of the blood, and this inaction of the capillaries, are not all the evils produced by indolence. That sprightly vigour which we feel and enjoy in an active course of life, that zest in appetite and refreshment after eating which luxury seeks in vain from art, is owing wholly to new blood made every day from fresh food prepared and distributed by the joint action of all the parts of the body. No man can have these delightful sensations who lives two days with the same blood. To introduce new juices the old must be first thrown off, or there will be a plethora: the first causes of many diseases. In a state of inactivity the old humours pass off too slowly. The insensible perspiration is so inconsiderable that there is no void to be filled. Consequently by degrees the appetite, which is the last thing that decays (that is, the desire of supply), must diminish and at last be totally lost.
Here art can do wonders. It can procure evacuations: we can bleed, purge, and vomit. But to do any good by these the case must be recent, before the humours are vitiated by too long a stay in the body,
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
which will be the case very soon, for they are all in a perishable state. But then these artificial evacuations discharge all alike—the new, the middle, and the old juices; that is, the chyle, the blood, the serum, and lymph—and by this indiscriminate action make strange confusion on those that remain. Whereas in nature's course there is a constant regular transmutation and succession from one state to another; that is, from chyle into blood, and blood into serum, and so on, till they are all elaborated and ground to such a minute fineness that they pass off in the vapour of insensible perspiration. In a state of indolence they do not pass off either so soon or so regularly as they ought, because there is no motion, nor consequently heat enough to throw off the vapour. They lodge in the body too long, grow putrid, acrimonious, and hurtful many ways. Like the matter formed in an ulcer, which while it is yet sweet, there is no balsam so healing;9 but when confined, it soon becomes corrosive, and like a caustic eats its way all round in fistulas. This shows the virulent acrimony of these confined and stagnating humours. Hence the breath and perspiration of indolent people is never sweet. And hence in jails, where these noxious vapours are collected and condensed from crowded wretches languishing in indolence, very malignant and pestilential fevers arise.
[5.] Perpetual blisters have been found to be serviceable in draining off some of these superfluous juices before they are much corrupted, and making, by a faint resemblance of nature's action, a little more room for new. It is for this reason they do any good at all, by increasing the general circulation and forcing off a few of those humours that had circulated too long in the body, and were becoming acrid. By a vomit or a purge the discharge is a hundredfold more, but the good obtained not always so great, because by these the humours are indiscriminately thrown off, and much more of the new than the old. Many have used frequent bleeding to renew their blood, and I have known it do some good. But then it must be begun before the whole mass of humours be vitiated, and continued for life. Is it not strange that men should seek and prefer these violent artificial methods to the simple, easy action of nature, and choose rather to take a vomit or a purge than a walk, and wear a perpetual blister than make use of their limbs?
[6.] Thus indolence must lay the foundation of diseases, and according to the constitution and a few other circumstances will be
9 Cadogan had said 'no balsam the surgeon can apply so healing'; cf. Dissertation25.
Medical and Health Writings the kind of the disease. In the best, it may be gout or rheumatism; in weaker habits, colic, jaundice, palsy, with all of the hysterical and hypochondriacal class. In vain have ingenious men of sedentary life endeavoured to obviate the evil by abstinence. I hey do not find it answer, for the reason I have just given, that we cannot live two days in health and spirits with the same blood. There must be a new daily supply of that ethereal part of our food, called up to the brain to support its own, as well as the labour of the whole body. By this I mean the most elaborated refined part of all our juices which constantly repairs the smallest vessels and fibres. Whenever this fails we must necessarily feel languor and lassitude both of body and mind. With this difference, that in weariness of the limbs from much action the lees and coarser parts are thrown off also, and the first meal and first sleep soon supplies the defect. In mental labour the feculence remains to obstruct all appetite; there is no room, and therefore no call for supply. The whole man suffers and sinks.
[III.]
Of Intemperance [1.] I come now to speak of intemperance. Indolence, blunting all our sensations, naturally leads us to intemperance. We want the whip and spur of luxury to excite our jaded appetites. There is no enduring the perpetual moping languor of indolence. We fly to the stimulating sensualities of the table and bottle. A momentary relief is obtained, to be paid for severely soon after. The next morning our horrors increase, and in this course there is no remedy but repetition. Thus whoever is indolent is intemperate also, and partly from necessity. And the evils necessarily following both these causes often make the rich and great more wretched than the poor, and the balance of happiness is held more equally between them.
[2.] I venture to say that nine in ten of all the chronic diseases in the world, particularly the gout, owe their first rise to intemperance. Indeed many a good man—who piques himself upon being the most sober creature alive, and never eats but of one or two plain dishes (as he calls them), nor exceeds his pint of wine at any meal; keeps good hours, and never sleeps above eight or nine—may be surprized to have his disease imputed to intemperance. And yet he is often ill, sick in his stomach, troubled with indigestion, and crippled by the gout. The case is, we judge of temperance and intemperance from our own habits, without any just idea of either.
Dissertation on the Gout, and, All Chronic Diseases
I he best way to explain what I mean by 'intemperance' may be to enquire what is nature's law of temperance, and to deviate from that must be considered as intemperance. And here I must observe that temperance is a thing of which no Englishman can have the least idea, if he judges from his own or his neighbours' habits. To form some notion of it he must have seen other countries, particularly Spain, Portugal, or Italy, and observed how men live there.
What they call temperance, or even tolerable living, with us would be thought downright starving. In this view temperance is local and comparative. But what I mean is natural temperance, not depending upon place or custom.
[3.] I think there is an absolute, determined temperance, to be measured by every man's natural appetite, digestion, and consumption while he continues in a good state of health. As long as a man eats and drinks no more than his stomach calls for, and will bear without the least pain, distention, eructation, and uneasiness of any kind, he may be said to live in temperance.
[4.] This is nature's law; and the reverse of it, or indeed any great deviation from it, must be intemperance—when we eat without appetite, or urge beyond moderate satiety, provoked by incentives of any kind; or when we drink without thirst, for the sake of liquor.10
[5.] Now let us compare this idea of temperance with the common course of most men's lives, and observe their progress from health to sickness. I fear we shall find but very few who have any pretensions to real temperance. In early youth we are insensibly led into intemperance by the indulgence and mistaken fondness of parents, by wishing to make us happy by anticipation. Having thus exhausted the first degrees of luxury before we come to the dominion of ourselves, we should find no pleasure in our liberty did we not advance farther. Thus we go on till some friendly pain or disease bids, or rather forces, us to stop. But in youth all the parts of our bodies are strong and flexible, and bear the first loads of excess with less hurt, and throw them off soon by their own natural vigour, or with very little assistance from artificial evacuation. As we grow older, either by nature in due time, or excesses before our time, the body is less able to free itself and wants more aid from art. The man however goes on taking daily more than he wants. He feels himself oppressed and his appetite failing, his spirits sink for
10JW omitted Cadogan's continuation: 'indeed I cannot allow him to be strictly temperate who drinks any wine or strong liquor at all, unless it be medicinally, or now and then for the sake of society and good humour, but by no means every day'; cf. Dissertation, 31—32.
Medical and Health Writings want of fresh supply. He has recourse to dainties, sauces, pickles, provocatives of all sorts. These soon lose their power. And though he washes down each mouthful with a glass of wine, he can relish nothing. What is to be done? Send for a physician. 'Doctor, I have lost my stomach. Pray give me', says he, with great innocence and ignorance, 'something to give me an appetite.' As if want of appetite was a disease to be cured by art. In vain would the physician give him the best advice in two words, ''quaere sudando']] ('seek it by labour'). He would be thought a man void of skill if he did not immediately, or after a few evacuations, prescribe stomachics, bitter, spicy infusions in wine or brandy, vitriolic elixirs, bark, steel, etc.
By the use of these things the stomach, roused to a little extraordinary action, frees itself by discharging its crude, austere contents into the bowels, to be thence forwarded into the blood. The man is freed for a time, finds he can eat again, and thinks all well. But this is a short-lived delusion. If he is robust, the acrimony floating in the blood will be thrown out, and a fit of gout succeeds. If less so, rheumatism or colic. But let us suppose it to be the gout, which if he lives moderately, drinking no Madeira or brandy to keep it out of his stomach, nature will relieve him in a certain time, and the gouty acrimony being conducted by the symptomatic fever, he will recover health. If assisted by judicious, mild, and soft medicines, he would recover sooner. But it is for a short time. For he returns to his former habits and quickly brings on the same round of complaints, all aggravated by each return, till he becomes a confirmed invalid and cripple for life. Then with a great deal of useless medication and a few journeys to Bath he drags on till, in spite of all the doctors he has consulted and the infallible quack medicines he has taken, he sinks below opium and brandy, and dies long before his time. This is the course I have lived to see many take. All this chain of evils is brought on and accumulated by indolence and intemperance, or mistaken choice of diet. How' easily might they have been remedied, had the real causes been known and attended to in time!
[6.] I must here explain a little what I mean by provoking the appetite, which I take to be the general mode of intemperance among men. Custom has made all incentives to excess so common that those of daily use, far from being considered in the class of intemperance, are by people thought to be salutary and necessary. They never suspect the least evil from the common decoraments of the table: salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar. And yet I will venture to pro-
Horace, Satires, II.ii.20.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
nounce that excess in any of these must be doubly prejudicial to health. They are hurtful in themselves by their acrimony. And they provoke the appetite to bear an oppressive load, which the stomach itself would soon feel, were it not artificially stimulated to discharge it by wine and strong liquors immediately after. Thus one error brings on another, and when men have eaten too much, they drink too much by a kind of necessity.
[7.] If this be true of the common provocatives at every poor man's board, what shall we say of that studied, laboured extravagance at the tables of the rich—where the culinary arts are pushed to that excess that luxury is become false to itself, and though variety is aimed at, everything has the same taste, and nothing its own?
I am sorry and ashamed that men understand it so little as to think that urging beyond natural satiety can afford any real enjoyment.
But this they do, by all the researches of culinary and medical art.
Introducing all the foreign aids to luxury, every provocative that can be found in acids, salts, fiery spices, and essences of all kinds to rouse their nerves to a little feeling. Not knowing the more they are irritated, the more callous they grow. The same things must now be more frequently repeated, increased in quantity, and exalted in quality. Till they know not where to stop, and every meal serves only to overload the stomach, to foul and inflame the blood, obstruct the capillary channels, bring on a hectic fever of irritation that, though it raise the spirits for the evening, leaves behind it all the horrid sensations of inanition and crapula the next morning.
And but that nature is so kind as to stop them in their career with a painful fit of gout or some other illness, in which she gets a little respite, they would soon be at the end of their course.
[8.] Men bring all these evils upon themselves, either not knowing or not attending to two things: the one, that pleasure is a coy coquet, and to be enjoyed must not always be pursued; the other, that pleasure and happiness are as distinct things as riot and enjoyment.
Besides, pleasure is not infinite, and our sensations are limited. We can bear but a certain measure, and all urging beyond it brings pain in its stead. Let the men of high experience bear me testimony that this is true of all the luxuries of the table, wine, music, women, and every sensuality.
[9.] But there are some not intemperate from choice but from custom or mistake,12 not knowing their daily diet to be unwholesome
12JW omitted a section where Cadogan attributed this in part to 'their superstitious religion'; cf. Dissertation, 39.
Medical and Health Writings and productive of their diseases. To these it may be of some use to have the unwholesome pointed out. Indeed men of laborious occupations, who work in the open air, bear great excesses and much unwholesome diet without much hurt. I never knew a sick or gouty gardener that was not a remarkable sot. But men of sedentary trades and business, shopkeepers of all kinds, feel much sooner and more heavily the ill effects of intemperance or mistaken choice in their meat and drink. Their first care therefore ought to be not to add the diseases of intemperance to those of inactivity, but proportion what they take as well in quantity as in quality to their consumption. But let us see how well they do this. They all say they live upon plain things, and never indulge in made dishes. But they will eat heartily of a goose or duck with a large quantity of sage, onion, pepper, and salt, a pig with similar preparation, and a hare with higher and more compounded seasoning. Do they ever eat veal without stuffing, or even a leg of mutton without caper sauce?'' They are surprised that such meals should rise on their stomachs with flatulence, sour and bitter hiccups and eructations, which if they did not keep them down with a sufficient quantity of wine, or sometimes a dram, they would be troubled with all the time of digestion. If this method quiet their stomachs for the present, they go on with it, regardless or ignorant of future consequences. Thus are these sharp, harsh, hot, and inflammatory things forced out of the stomach into the blood, before it has had time to dilute and subdue, or reject them and the superfluous load they bring along with them. And thus is laid the foundation of every disease that appears when these acrid and fiery particles are accumulated in the blood to a certain degree.
[10.] There are others whose pretensions to plain diet may seem better founded, but who nevertheless eat things unwholesome and very unfit for men of sedentary lives, such as salted and smoked flesh and fish of all kinds, hams, tongues, heavy flour puddings, toasted cheese—all which are of an hard and indissoluble texture, nor is it possible good nourishment should come from them. To this kind of food is owing the bad health of country people, and their children's rickety heads and limbs, and big and hard bellies.14
13 JW omitted Cadagon's next sentence: 'If ever they eat a steak or a chop, if it is sometimes without pepper, I believe it is never without pickles, the worst of all poisons'; cf. ibid., 41.
I4JW omitted an entire section in Cadogan charging that most people overcook the meat they eat; they should avoid boiling meat, and only broil it; cf. ibid., 43-44.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
[11.] This leads me to another observation:15 that man being born to devour most of the fruits and animals of the earth and water, there ought to be a certain proportion of animal and vegetable substances in his food. The animal tending spontaneously to putrefaction, the vegetable correcting that tendency from going too far—thus from the due mixture of both qualities results that neutral16 property that is essentially necessary to produce good blood. And here I may observe that the error of most men's diet in every class of life is that the acid [foods], crude and austere, almost always abound. Not that they do not eat flesh-meat enough, but they spoil it in the preparation and cookery, taking off entirely all its tendency to dissolution and putrefaction by salting, smoking, pickling, potting, and preserving things that in their own simple nature would soon dissolve, but by these preparations are hardened and embalmed to keep for years like mummies. The same may be said of every kind of made dishes. The salts, spices, hot herbs, and acids with which they are seasoned and compounded preserve and harden them to keep for ever. The sauces and gravies they swim in have the same effect as so much pickle.
[12.] The nature of most chronic diseases, and their first symptom, heart-burn, plainly show the original cause to be acid crudity prevailing in the juices, producing coagulations, concretions, and obstructions of various kinds; all which are very manifest in the gout, rheumatism, stone, and most nervous cases. Many may be surprised at this and say it cannot be, for though they have these diseases they take little or no acids. But there are many things they take that are acescent—that is, liable to become acid, especially by the heat of the stomach. This they are not aware of, but they are in their nature much more prejudicial than things already sour. It may here be necessary to enumerate some of those things called acescent. These17 are sweets of most kinds,18 puddings, cakes, rich pastry, creams, confections.19
[13.] In this light we must also consider most sorts of seasonings, stuffings, forced meats, and compounded sauces. But the greatest
15 JW omitted Cadogan's next phrase: 'which perhaps none but physicians, or those who have studied well the nature of man and his aliments, are able to make'; cf. ibid., 44.
16Orig., 'nautral'.
17Orig., 'There'; corrected to Cadogan text.
18Cadogan said 'of every kind'; JW changed to 'most kinds'; cf. Dissertation, 47.
19 JW omitted a section where Cadogan rejected everything made of Hour, particularly 'white flour' from which bran was removed; ibid.
Medical and Health Writings acescent, or rather bane of all—high and low, rich or otherwise— whoever they are that take it constantly, is wine. Wine alone produces more diseases than all the other causes put together.
[14.] Water is the only liquor nature knows of or has provided for all animals; and whatever nature gives us, we may depend upon it, is best and safest for us. Accordingly we see that when we have committed any excesses or mistakes of any kind, and suffer from them, it is water that relieves. Hence the chief good of Bath, Spa, and many other medicinal waters,20 especially to hard drinkers. It is the element that dilutes and carries off crudities and indigestions.
The mineral virtues they contain may make them tolerable to the stomach, but do, as I believe, little more in the body. It is the water that cures.21
[15.] There is another capital mistake many labour under in the choice of their wine, preferring the strong, hot, and coarse sorts—
Madeira, Port, Mountain—to the milder, more elegant, and certainly less unwholesome wines,22 accounting them better for the stomach. My observation has been that they who use these strong stomach wines to cure wind are never free from it, and all the gouty disorders of indigestion. Indeed, it cannot well be otherwise. For there is nothing so repugnant to natural digestion as the use of these strong liquors, which instead of dissolving harden everything.
And thus forever, when the first warmth is gone off, leave a crapulary, crude, sour load of yesterday to ferment, fret, and irritate the stomach and bowels every day.
[IV.] Of Vexation
[1.] I come now to the last general cause of chronic diseases: vexation—a very fruitful parent of many bodily evils, producing generally diseases of inanition much more difficult not only to be cured but relieved than those we suffer either from indolence or intemperance. But as it is not so common a cause of the gout as the
20 Bath, Gloucestershire, and Spa, Belgium, were particularly known for their mineral water.
21 This paragraph is the only excerpt out of a long section w here Cadogan castigates those who drink wine every day, arguing that it should be consumed no more than once a week; cf. ibid., 48-52.
22 JW omitted Cadogan's identification of the less unwholesome wines as being from France and Italy.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
other two, it may not be necessary to consider it very minutely at present. I shall content myself with observing only what may be of some use, that every great degree of vexation, whether in the shape of anger, envy, resentment, discontent, or sorrow, has most destructive effects upon the vitals, whether sudden and violent, or slow and lasting long.
[2.] The first immediate effect of violent grief or vexation is to take off the action of the stomach entirely. Let us suppose a man, in the best health, the highest good humour and spirits, as well as good stomach, sitting down to dinner with his friends, receives suddenly some very afflicting news. Instantly his appetite is gone and he can neither eat nor swallow a morsel. Let the same thing happen after he has made a hearty cheerful meal, as suddenly the whole power of digestion is cut off totally, as if it were become paralytic, and what he has eaten lies a most oppressive load.
[3.] Besides this pernicious effect of perverting the natural action of the stomach and intestines, the whole circulation of the blood is disturbed. The contradiction and dilatation of the heart (that is, the alternative action by which it opens to receive the blood from the veins, and closes again to force it out through the arteries) are broken and uneven. The heart flutters, palpitates. Now is overloaded with blood and in danger of suffocation, now receives none at all.
Consequently all the secretions must be as irregular, some of the glands receiving too abundant a supply that either hurries through or oppresses and overpowers them, others none at all. Hence that hasty gushing of pale limpid urine in amazing quantities, those sudden bursts of unmeaning tears, sometimes great dryness and choking thirst, sometimes the overflowing of the mouth with water instead of saliva, and many other nervous and hysterical affections, all which indicate the greatest tumults and perturbations in the inmost recesses of the nervous and vital frame.
[4.] In slower, more silent, but longer continued grief the effects are similar, but not so violent. Many little strokes repeated will do the same thing in time that a great blow does at once. The function of the stomach will be more gently disturbed, its juices vitiated, and all its contents will turn sour, bitter, or rancid; so that no mild milky chyle or wholesome material of nourishment can ever come into the blood. The patient must languish with cachectic inanition, universal bad habit of body, or pine and waste. Whence arise various diseases succeeding each other always from bad to worse. And unless he can subdue his anxiety, and restore peace of mind, he must in time sink under it and die, as it is said, of a broken heart.
Medical and Health Writings [5.] Vexation operating in this manner upon the organs of digestion and concoction, and disturbing and obstructing the natural progress of nutrition, must often produce diseases similar to those of intemperance. Its first effect is indigestion with all its symptoms: wind, eructation, heartburn, hiccup. It is no wonder therefore it should sometimes bring on a fit of gout (which, as I have said, is manifestly a disease of indigestion), and often the gout in the stomach and bowels. Indeed most cold, crude colics are of this kind. Schirrous concretions will also be formed in the spleen, liver, glands of the mesentery, and throughout the whole system of the belly. Many of these indurated tumours in time degenerate into cancers and cancerous ulcerations.
[6.] All the passions, when they are inordinate, may have injurious effects upon the vital frame. Excessive joy has sometimes given a fatal blow, and sudden bursts of laughter done great mischiefs, especially to delicate people.
IS [7.] I am fully and firmly persuaded that whoever will reflect with some degree of intelligence will in general be able to trace his complaints and diseases up to one or the other of these three causes.
And whoever does this must infallibly see how vain and idle all his hopes and expectations of lasting remedy and established health must be from any kind of quacks, medicines, or indeed the common and too general practice of physic. When the whole is rested upon something given to swallow, how inadequate the means are to the end proposed? How can vomiting and purging supply the place of temperance; bleeding, blistering, and all artificial evacuation, of activity; cordials and opium, of peace of mind? Is not this to fill the body with harsh and unwholesome juices, and then tear it to pieces to get them out again? To make artificial holes and sores in the skin to renew the blood and discharge superfluities, instead of employing muscular motion to rub off and grind down all the acrimony of angular particles, and make them smooth and round, and easily divisible? And to employ intoxication and stupefaction to take off the sense of pain, and leave the cause where it was, or fix it faster? Can any reasonable person hope for health or long life by any of these unnatural methods, when these only are employed? Let him look round among his neighbours and tell me whether, not only all the gouty, but rheumatic, colicky, jaundiced, paralytic, dropsical people he has ever seen, are not either always so or by fits so; and whether those returning fits of these disorders do not always grow worse and worse, in spite of all their medication and quackery, till a complication or apoplexy comes
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases 601
on that at last, though long before their time, puts an end to their miserable lives.
[V.] Of the Cure of the Gout and all other Chronic Diseases, and the Repair of a broken Constitution [1.] Having set forth the real causes of the gout and all its congenial diseases, I come now to the most essential part: to administer all possible comfort to those whom suffering may have made attentive and docile, and willing to take health upon the terms it is possible to have it.23
[2.] Many attempts have been made to cure not only the gout but most other chronic diseases. Antimony and mercury elaborated into poisons by chemistry have been administered. Particularly the solution of sublimate has torn many a stomach to rags, so that it could never bear common food afterwards. The deadly nightshade, and hemlock, and many such dreadful poisons have been given as to restore health. The intention here seems to be 'kill or cure', to raise a violent agitation or fever in the body, in hopes it may prove strong enough to throw off the disease and medicine together. The effect has ever been, notwithstanding a little apparent relief from the first efforts, that it has sunk under both loads much sooner than by the disease alone.
[3.] Can anyone in his senses suppose that diseases a man has been his whole life contracting, and to which he is adding every day by perseverance in unwholesome diet and bad habits, are to be thus removed? Or that they will not return, be they conjured away ever so often, whilst he continues the same mode of life that brought them on at first?
[4.] What then is to be done? How and in what manner are chronic diseases to be cured, and health restored and established? The remedies are obvious: activity, temperance, and peace of mind. It will be said, 'The remedies are obvious but impractical. Would you bid the feeble cripple, who cannot stand, take up his bed and walk? The man who has lost all appetite, abstain? And the sleepless wretch racked with pain, enjoy peace of mind?' No certainly. I am not so absurd.
These must be assisted by medicine. And if they have not exhausted 23 JW omitted a section where Cadagon again denies that gout is hereditary, and on this basis rejects any medicine prescribed as a preventative to its occurrence; cf.
Dissertation, 65-67.
Medical and Health Writings all its power already, a little respite may be obtained that, with other aids co-operating, may be greatly improved to their advantage. And if rightly employed, they may get on from strength to strength, till they recover into perfect health. But it is not my design to expatiate upon that particular kind of medical relief which every chronic case may require. My present purpose is to show that the gout, in most of its stages, may be cured—a present fit relieved, its return forever safely prevented, and the patient established in perfect health.
[5.] Let us suppose the case of a man from forty to fifty years of age, who has had at least twenty fits of gout, by which most of his joints have been so clogged and disturbed as to make walking or any kind of motion very uneasy. Let him have had it sometimes in his stomach, a little in his head, and often all over him, so as to make him universally sick and low spirited, especially before a regular fit has come to relieve him. This I apprehend to be as bad a case as we need propose. It will not be expected that every old cripple whose joints are burnt to chalk and his bones grown together, who must be carried from his bed to his table and back again, should be proposed as an object.
[6.] If the point be to assuage the violent raging of a present paroxysm, this may be safely done by giving some soft laxative, neither hot nor cold, but warm, either in small doses repeated so as to move the patient once or twice in twenty-four hours, or by a larger dose oftener in less time, according to the strength and exigency. This may be followed by a few lenient absorbent correctors of acrimony or even gentle anodynes. Proper cataplasms may also be safely applied to the raging part, which often assuage pain surprisingly. With as much mild and spontaneously-dissolving nourishment as may keep the spirits from sinking too low. But I would wish them to sink a little, and exhort the patient to bear that lowness with patience and resignation till nature, assisted by soft and succulent food, can have time to relieve him. This easy method of treating a fit of the gout would answer in any age. And if the patient was young and vigorous, and the pain violent, there could be no danger in taking away a little blood. Thus in two or three days time I have often seen a severe fit made tolerable. And this is a better way of treating it with regard to future consequences than suffering it to take its course. For the sooner the joints are relieved from distension and pain, the less danger there is of their being calcined and utterly destroyed. But instead of this, the general practice is quite the reverse.
'Oh, keep up your spirits!' they cry. 'Keep it out of your stomach at all events (where, whenever it rages in a distant part, it is not at
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chrome Diseases
all inclined to come). As you cannot eat, you must drink the more freely.' So they take cordials, strong wines, and rich spoon-meats.
By urging in this manner a great fever is raised, the pain enraged and prolonged, and a fit that would have ended spontaneously in a week protracted to a month or six weeks. And when it goes off at last, it leaves such obstruction and weakness in the parts as cripple the man ever after.
[7.] But the most capital point of all is to prevent its return and to establish health. Most men would be very well pleased could this be done by any medical trick, with full liberty of living as they list.24
[8.] I think it needless here to take any pains to show the inefficacy of all the common modes of practice: vomiting, purging, bleeding, blistering, issues. They have been found ineffectual not only in the gout but all other chronic cases. All sensible practitioners know their effects but temporary, and that they are meant only as means of present relief. Let us see therefore by what practicable plan the person here described, when a fit of the gout is happily ended, may prevent its return, and so confirm his health that it shall not again be overset by every slight cold or trifling accident.
[9.] I have already shown that a certain degree of bodily motion is necessary every day, to raise the circulation to that pitch that will keep the fine vessels open and the old blood pure, and also make new from the fresh juices. If the patient cannot be brought to this, he has no chance of recovering health. If therefore he can neither walk nor ride at all, he must by degrees be brought to do both, in the following manner. Let a handy active servant or two be employed to rub him all over as he lies in bed with flannels, or flannel gloves, fumigated with gums and spices, which will contribute greatly to brace and strengthen his nerves and fibres, and move his blood without any fatigue to himself.b This may take up from five to ten minutes at first, but must be repeated five or six times a day, supposing him totally unable to help himself. But if he can walk a hundred yards
bA little friction may have little or no effect. But long continued, and repeated often, with fumigated flannels, it will do more to recover health, and support it afterwards, than most other things or methods. It promotes circulation and perspiration, opens the pores, forces the fine vessels, strains and purifies the blood, and this without the assistance of any internal stimulation. It is this that keeps horses in tolerable health with little exercise [Cadogan; abridged by JW],
24 JW omitted Cadogan's warning about how easily misled are 'poor silly creatures, ignorant of all philosophy and the nature of causes and effects'; cf. Dissertation, 72-73.
Medical and Health Writings only, it will forward him greatly to walk those hundred yards every two hours. And if he can bear a carriage, let him go out in it every day, till he begins to be tired. The first day or two all this may fatigue him a little. But if he has patience to persevere to the fourth,
I dare promise him an increase of strength, which he must employ as young merchant[s] do a little money, to get more. Thus he must go on rubbing, walking, and riding a little more and more every day, stopping always upon the first sensation of weariness to rest a little, till he be able to walk two or three miles at a stretch, or ride ten without any weariness at all. This is recommended with an intention to dislodge and throw off all remains of crude gouty concretions that may have obstructed his joints, or lain concealed in any of the recesses of his body; to free the circulation and all its secretions, perspirations, and discharges. And though this intention can never be but very defectively answered by medicines, it may certainly be assisted and greatly promoted by a few well-chosen mild antimonial, absorbent or saponaceous deobstruents that, like putting shot or gravel into a bottle, with a good deal of agitation will greatly help to make it clean, but without agitation will do nothing.
[10.] While we are thus endeavouring to resolve all old obstructions, to open the fine vessels, and strain and purify the blood, and by degrees to enable the man to use a certain degree of exercise every day, great care must be taken in the choice of his diet, that no new acrimony be added to the old. His food must be soft, mild, and in moderate quantity, so as to give the least possible labour to the stomach and bowels, that it may neither turn sour, nor bitter, nor rancid, nor any way degenerate from those qualities necessary to make good blood. Such things are, at first, new-laid eggs boiled very lightly, tripe, calves' feet, chicken, partridge, rabbits, most sorts of white mild fish (such as whiting or cod), and all sorts of shell-fish, particularly oysters raw. Very soon he will be strong enough to eat beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, venison. But these must all be kept till they are tender, and eaten without any compounded sauces or pickles whatever. Instead of which, boiled or stewed vegetables, and salads of lettuce and endive, may be used. And the luxury that is not unwholesome may be allowed: light puddings, custards, creams, blancmange, and ripe fruits of all kinds and seasons. But because wine undoubtedly produces nine in ten of all the gouts in the world, wine must be avoided, or taken very sparingly.25
25 JW omitted a section where Cadogan gives advice on how to reduce gradually one's intake of wine; cf. Dissertation, 78-80.
Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronic Diseases
[11.] The severity of these efforts need be continued no longer than the disease, or the effects of it, remain. When the patient shall have recovered his strength, he may preserve it upon the following plan.
[12.] He must never lose sight of the three great principles of health—activity, temperance, and peace of mind. With these ever in view, he may eat and drink of anything. But his diet must be plain, simple, solid, and tender. He must eat but of one thing or two at most at a meal, and this will soon bring him to be satisfied with about half his usual quantity. For all men eat twice as much as they ought to do, provoked by variety. He must drink little of any liquor. The drier every man's diet is, the better. He must drink little wine. Instead of supper, any good ripe fruit of the season would be salutary, preventing costiveness, and correcting and carrying off the heats and crudities of his indigestion.
[13.] His activity need be no more than to persevere in the habit of rubbing all over, night and morning, for eight or ten minutes; and walking three or four miles every day, or riding ten, or using any exercise equivalent to it. In bad weather I can see no great evil in throwing a cloak round his shoulders and walking even in the rain.
The only difficulty is to summon resolution enough to venture out, and a little use would take off all danger of catching cold. If he dares not risk this, some succedaneum26 must be used within doors; more especially when bad weather continues any time. I recommend it to all men to wash their feet every day, the gouty in particular, and not to lie abed above seven hours in summer, and eight in winter.
[14.] Some perhaps may say, 'This plan of yours is very simple.
But will such a regimen cure the gout, stone, dropsy? Will it repair broken constitutions and restore old invalids to health?' My answer is that, if I may trust the experience of my whole life, and above all the experience I have had in my own person—having not only got rid of the gout, of which I had four severe fits in my younger days, but also emerged from the lowest ebb of life that a man could possibly be reduced to by colic, jaundice, and a complication of complaints, and recovered to perfect health; which I have now uninterruptedly enjoyed above ten years—I say, if I may rely upon all this, I may promise that the plan here recommended, assisted at first with the collateral aids of medicine, pursued with resolution and patience, will certainly procure to others the same benefits I received from it.2/
261.e., some substitute.
27JW omitted Cadogan's further claim that it would 'cure every curable disease';
Dissertation, 84.
Medical and Health Writings [15.] What can the best physician do more than discover to his patients the real causes of their diseases? You will say he must find a remedy. He will, as long as he can. But I will tell you a secret. His remedies are chiefly evacuations, and as long as your body can bear
5 scouring and cleansing he will do you some apparent service. But when it begins to wear out, his remedies will answer no longer. You must not repeat the cause so often, for he cannot build up as fast as you can pull down. In short, you must change all your bad habits for good ones. And if you have patience to wait the slow operations of 10 nature properly assisted, you will have no reason to regret.
[16.] I say this to invalids in general, for thus may be cured not only the gout but very bad rheumatisms, sciaticas, rickets, stone, jaundice, dropsy, asthma, cachexies, and complications of many kinds. Whatever chronic disease will not give way to this method
15 will be found, I greatly fear, too hard for any other. And should there be a particular case in which some fortunate violence may have apparently succeeded for a time, the return of the evil, or change to something worse, cannot be so well guarded against as by some such rational and natural institution of life.
'THOUGHTS ON "NERVOUS DISORDERS";
PARTICULARLY THAT WHICH IS
USUALLY TERMED
"LOWNESS OF SPIRITS"'
(1786) An Introductory Comment From the earliest roots of Western medicine it has been recognized that disorders that degrade human well-being are not limited to those whose effects are manifest in particular body organs or tissues, such as asthma, a cancer, or constipation. Some disorders are debilitating extremes in the disposition of the person as a whole, like mania or depression.1
The classical approach to health in terms of the four humours was particularly concerned to account for these broader disorders.
General well-being was attributed to proper balance of the humours. Natural variation in the predominance of one humour over the others accounted for typical differences in personal temperament, while excessive dominance of any humour was debilitating.
For example, a prominence of black bile (melama chole in Greek) was believed to make a person 'melancholic', and its excess manifest in increasingly ill temper, sullenness, brooding, and anger. The prominence of blood rendered a person 'sanguine', expressed in a ruddy countenance and a courageous, hopeful, and amorous disposition; qualities that rose to a level of inappropriateness in cases of excess. A preponderance of yellow bile disposed one to being 'choleric', or irritable and aggressive in temper and behaviour; traits that became more problematic with excess. Finally, mild dominance of phlegm resulted in a calm, self-possessed, and imperturbable temperament; while extremes of this humour were the cause of sluggishness and apathy.
'The following summary draws in part on Edward Hare, 'The History of "Nervous Disorders" from 1600 to 1840, and a Comparison with Modern Views', British Journal of Psychiatry 159 (1991): 37-45; and Heather Beatty, Nervous Disorders in the Late Eighteenth Century (New York: Routledge, 2011).
Medical and Health Writings Although these disorders impacted the whole person, they were connected in the classical model to particular body organs, because humours were understood to be created during the body's processing of food, drink, and air. The production of black bile was connected to the gall bladder; yellow bile, to the spleen; and blood, to the liver. 1 he biggest challenge in the classical account was to explain how accumulation of humours in these organs (black and yellow bile, in particular), could influence the mind. The general response was to posit some sort of'sympathy' (shared feeling) between the mind and the relevant organs. One prominent way of detailing this connection was the suggestion that the 'vapours' of the humours ascended from their productive organs in the lower abdomen up to the head.
Discussion of Nervous Disorders in Eighteenth-Century England These classical notions are reflected in the names for emotional disorders through the early eighteenth century in England. The terms 'spleen' and 'vapours' appear repeatedly in titles of books.2
These book titles often parallelled the first two terms with 'hypochondriacal' and 'hysterical' disorders respectively. Hypochondria is the Greek term for the parts of the body immediately below the ribs, including the liver, gall bladder, and spleen. By the early eighteenth century it had become an inclusive term for aggressive and melancholic disorders, which were assumed to be particularly characteristic of males. Hystera is the Greek word for uterus. During the same time period, 'hysteria' became an inclusive term for disorders characterized by fainting, hypersensitivity, and the like, which were often assumed to affect only women.3
2 See, for example, John Purcell, A Treatise of Vapours, Or, Hysteric Fits (London: Newman & Cox, 1702); Sir John Midriff (pseudonym), Observations on the Spleen and Vapours (London: Roberts, 1721); Richard Blackmore, A Treatise of the Spleen and Vapours: Or, Hypochondriacal and Hysterical Affections (London:
Pemberton, 1725); Nicholas Robinson, A New System of the Spleen, Vapours, and Hypochondriac Melancholy: Wherein all the Decays of the Nerves, and Lownesses of the Spirits, are mechanically Accounted for (London: Bettesworth et ah, 1729); and George Cheyne, The English Malady: Or, A Treatise of Nervous Diseases of all Kinds, As Spleen, Vapours, Lowness of Spirits, Hypochondriacal, and Hysterical
Distempers (London: George Strahan, 1733).
3 Cf. Bernard Mandeville, A Treatise of the Hypochondriac and Hysteric Diseases (London, Tonson, 1730).
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
One other phrase found in these book titles is 'lowness of spirits'.
From at least the time of Galen the conveyance of the impetus toward action from the mind to various body parts was explained by 'animal spirits', which were believed to be formed in the brain by refining vital spirits brought there by the blood, and then distributed via the spinal cord to the rest of the body. A lack of animation or impetus to action (as in depression or apathy) was attributed to deficiency of these spirits—i.e., 'lowness of spirits'.
While such residual influence of the classical account remained in the early 1700s, the humoral model had come under increasing question within the medical community over the prior century.
These doubts were raised by heightened study of human anatomy.
To begin with, little if any physiological evidence was found for distinguishing the humours (other than blood),4 or their connection to specific organs. Meanwhile, William Harvey's detailing of the circulation of blood provided a more compelling account of the connection between the liver and other organs than notions of 'sympathy' or rising 'vapours'. This success fostered closer study of the circulation of the blood through specific organs, which cast further doubt on the suggestion (for example) that blood leaving the spleen contained a higher level of 'black bile'.5 The crowning challenge of the seventeenth century to the model of the humours was Thomas
Willis's detailed study of the brain and nervous system.6 Willis located the mind/soul (the centre of sensation, motivation, and personal disposition) in the brain (rather than pervading the body as a whole) and identified the nerves as the conduits of connection between the brain and the body. Thereby he fostered a growing restriction of the role of blood to circulating nutrients and oxygen through the body; while sensory, temperamental, and motivational well-being were increasingly assigned to the brain and its network of nerves. By the end of the seventeenth century the main debate was not over the role of the nervous system in disorders of this nature, but between competing accounts of how the impulses and dispositions of the brain were conveyed through the nerves. Willis continued to invoke animal spirits, suggesting that the nerves were hollow conduits through which these spirits flowed to and from the 4'Yellow bile', for example, was increasingly recognized as simply the yellowish serum left when blood clotted.
5Cf. Blackmore, Treatise, 14.
6 See particularly Willis's Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves (1664) and Pathology of the Brain and Nervous Stock (1687); both published first in Latin.
Medical and Health Writings brain.7 Others insisted that the nerves were more like solid strings, which conveyed impulses by variations in vibration.
The displacement of humoral theory by focus on the nervous system had several effects. By breaking connection of the uterus with hysteria, it encouraged recognition of the full range of emotional disorders in both men and women.8 By setting aside the typology of the four classic temperaments, it opened attention to a wider range of disorders, such as wandering pains, or the false imagination of suffering an ailment. And overall it encouraged the gathering of this range of ailments under the heading 'nervous disorders'—though some, like Robert Whytt, placed 'simple nervous' disorders alongside of hysteric and hypochondriac disorders.9
As nervous disorders became a more unified diagnostic group, estimates of their prevalence increased. In 1692 Thomas Sydenham judged that hysterical disorders (in which he included hypochondria) comprised about one-sixth of the ailments to which humans were prone.10 By 1725 Richard Blackmore doubled the relative percentage to one-third.11 Few questioned at the time whether this increase was simply the result of shifting prior recognized ailments into the new category. Rather debate broke out over how to account for the recent increase of nervous disorders, particularly among the British.
One of the most influential contributions to the debate was George Cheyne's treatise The English Malady, published in 1733. Cheyne's preface echoed the estimate of nervous disorders comprising onethird of all ailments among his contemporaries, drawing the specific contrast that these were 'scarce known to our ancestors'.12 Part of Cheyne's concern was to counter the public tendency to dismiss nervous disorders as demonic, fake, or delusional—by emphasizing
7 See JW's related suggestion of the nerves conducting 'ethereal fire' in §6 of his essay below, and Desideratum, Preface, §7.
"Note how Thomas Sydenham combines discussion of hysteria and hypochondria in The Cumpleat Method of Curing Almost All Diseases (London: Randal Taylor,
9 E.g, William Smith, MD, A Dissertation on the Nerves; Containing An Account.... of the Symptoms, Causes, and Cure of Nervous Diseases (London: for the author, 1768). Cf. Robert Whytt, Observations on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of those Disorders which have been Commonly called Nervous, Hypochondriac, or Hysteric (Edinburgh: Becket & du Hondt, 1765).
111 Thomas Sydenham, A Collection of Chronical Diseases (London: Henry Bonwicke, 1692), 32.
11 Blackmore, Treatise of the Spleen, iv.
12 Cheyne, English Malady, ii.
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
physical factors that contribute to the ailments, like unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, and abuse of alcohol. But he went further, arguing that the English suffered nervous ailments to a higher degree than other nations because of the greater w ealth and leisure they had achieved as a nation (providing more opportunities for gluttony and sloth). He also contended that the ones most susceptible to nervous disorders were persons 'whose faculties are the brightest and most spiritual, and whose genius is most keen and penetrating'.13 These claims sparked a cultural tendency over the next few decades to associate nervous disorders largely with the upper class, and to portray sufferers as particularly sensitive souls.14
Such glamorization of nervous disorders in the second quarter of the 1700s led more physicians to focus on their treatment. At the same time, prominent books devoted to this topic in the later decades of the century reduced reference to class, wealth, or the superior sensibilities of those suffering these ailments—thereby broadening their audience.15 What remained constant through the century was a primary focus on regimen in treating nervous disorders.16 Sufferers were instructed on proper diet, cautioned against use of alcohol, tea, and coffee, exhorted to get more exercise (with an emphasis on riding), and encouraged to consider moving to locales with more healthy air. Beyond this attention to the 'non-naturals', there were often also suggestions for those afflicted with nervous disorders to seek out diversions and sources of entertainment or delight (like music). The prescription of medicines played a decidedly secondary role—aimed mainly at lessening symptoms or promoting stronger constitutions. Anyone touting an elixir promising quick and lasting cures for nervous ailments was branded a quack.
John Wesley's Engagement with Nervous Disorders John Wesley's awareness of and advice concerning nervous disorders mirrors the context just traced.1' He likely read Cheyne's
13Ibid., 262.
14 Beatty, Nervous Disorders, 2, 19-24.
15 See the discussion of Robert Whytt in ibid., 142.
16 What follows summarizes the survey of typical treatment in ibid., 99-139.
17 For more on this point, see James G. Donat, 'John Wesley on the Estimation and Cure of Nervous Disorders', in Harry Whitaker et al. (eds.), Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience (New York: Springer, 2007),
285-99.
Medical and Health Writings English Malady shortly after it was published.18 If so, he drew little upon it explicitly until the last decade of his ministry, because
Cheyne's focus on the upper class had little overlap with the main arena of Wesley's work as priest/physician. Yet Wesley's first mention of 'nerves' in a health context—in the section of the preface to Primitive Physic (1747) cautioning that 'coffee and tea are extremely hurtful to persons who have weak nerves'—was drawn from another book by Cheyne.19 By this point Wesley was convinced that some nervous ailments, and the tea that caused them, were no longer limited to the upper class; they were affecting the poorer of his societies.20 This conviction led Wesley to elaborate this connection the following year in his Letter to a Friend concerning Tea (1748).
Beyond the preface, Wesley included only one ailment specifically identified with the nerves in the initial edition of Primitive
Physic: 'A nervous Headache' (§129 in this edn.). This remained the sole entry until 1759, when he added to the 8th edition a section on 'Nervous Disorders' (§161).21 The new section was drawn almost entirely from John Hill's Construction of the Nerves And Causes of Nervous Disorders, published the previous year. The one comment in Wesley's own voice was that there is 'no remedy in nature for nervous disorders of every kind comparable to the proper and constant use of the electrical machine' (§161, #2). This claim was repeated
(with the qualification 'palsies excepted') in 1760, in his preface to Desideratum,22 His rapid incorporation of Hill's treatise suggests that Wesley kept an eye out for books on nervous disorders in the later decades of his ministry. He similarly cited Robert Whytt's Observations on the Nature, Causes, and Cure of those Disorders which have been commonly called Nervous, Hypochondriac, or Hysteric (1765) within five years of its publication, in his abridgement of Tissot's Advices with Respect to Health and the Primitive Physic A As noted in the general Introduction to this volume, however, it was a book Wesley read in 1742 that most shaped his advice related
18In his Oxford diary JW records on Sept. 9, 1734, 'read Cheyne'. Since he had previously read Cheyne's earlier books, Essay on Health and New Theory of...
Fevers, this was most likely referring to the newly released English Malady. l9See Primitive Physic, Preface, §16, II. 10; drawing on Cheyne's Essay on Health.
20JW, Journal, July 6, 1746, 20:125 in this edn.
21A single remedy for 'A nervous Fever' also appeared briefly in editions 15-16, which is included in this edition as §161, #4.
22 Desideratum, Preface, §7.
23 See the note on prescription No. 30 near the end of Advices (1769); and Primitive Physic, §65, #3.
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
to emotional disorders in his later ministry. Up till that time Wesley's comments in his Journal echo a broadly shared assumption that emotional ailments have spiritual causes (including demonic influence), and can be effectively treated only by repentance, faith, and prayers for deliverance. In March 1742 Wesley read yet another book by George Cheyne, which argued that disorders like lunacy and madness are due to natural causes and require natural cures.24
From that point on Wesley's comments on madness reflect more nuance. While he continued to insist that some cases were spiritual in origin, and were best treated accordingly, he increasingly emphasized the physical causes of these ailments, and the corresponding possibilities of cure.
This balance also characterized Wesley's mature pastoral and health advice related to nervous disorders, as seen in the opening paragraphs of his 'Thoughts' below. He was always ready to remind readers that some instances of supposed nervous ailments were 'no natural disorder of the body, but the hand of God upon the soul' (§1).2' But he devoted the majority of his advice to the reality that 'there are nervous disorders which are purely natural'
Much of his advice was pastoral, assuring his people that emotional 'heaviness' or 'wandering thoughts' caused by weakness of the nerves were 'no more imputed to you as a sin than the flowing of the blood in your veins'.26 As such, the Methodist goal of'perfection' remained a viable hope for those with nervous disorders, even if these ailments endured throughout their life.2/
As a priest/physician, Wesley usually joined this pastoral assurance with health advice, reflecting his conviction that there was also hope for lessening or overcoming the physical impact of most nervous ailments. His advice typically included a reminder of our
24 See George Cheyne, The Natural Method of Curing the Diseases of the Body and Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body (London: Strahan, 1742), 78-95, esp.
90. JW notes reading this volume in Journal, Mar. 12, 1742, 19:256 in this edn.
Cheyne emphasizes a sparse diet and cold baths for the cure.
25 See, for example, Sermon 72, 'Of Evil Angels', II.11, 3:25 in this edn.; and Sermon 84, 'The Important Question', III.7, 3:193 in this edn.
26JW letter to Alexander Knox, Dec. 23, 1779, in Appendix C. See also Sermon 41, 'Wandering Thoughts', II.3 & IV.3, 2:129-30, 135 in this edn.; Sermon 47,
'Heaviness through Manifold Temptations', II.3, 2:225 in this edn.; Sermon 77, 'Spiritual Worship', III.6, 3:100 in this edn.; and JW to Mary Smith, May 2, 1783
(vol. 30 in this edn.).
27 See particularly JW to Dorothy Furly, Sept. 15, 1762, 27:302 in this edn.; and JW to Dorothy (Furly) Downes, Nov. 21, 1783 (vol. 30 in this edn.).
Medical and Health Writings need for divine assistance.28 But he was clear that we should not rely upon prayer and faith alone; for 'faith no more hinders the "sinking of the spirits" ... in a hysteric illness than the rising of the pulse in a fever'.29 Wesley also cautioned against placing hope in any elixir or medicine to cure nervous disorders, because these treat only the symptoms, not the underlying cause.30 Like the leading physicians of his day, Wesley attributed nervous disorders mainly to a lack of proper attention to the 'non-naturals'; that is: 1) intemperance in meat or drink, either with regard to the quantity or quality; 2) want of exercise, or excess therein; 3) immoderate sleep or watching;
4) unwholesome air; 5) the diminution of some natural evacuation; [and/or] 6) irregular passions.31 As such, Wesley's core advice was a return to proper regimen—the regimen (drawn from George
Cheyne) found in the Preface (§16) of Primitive Physic since 1747.
After his 1774 publication of the extract of William Cadogan's Dissertation on the Gout, which highlighted three components of this regimen (exercise, temperance, and regulation of passions), Wesley occasionally applied this narrower prescription to nervous disorders
(as he does below in 'Thoughts', §5).32 He also could focus tighdy on the importance of rising early and avoiding too much sleep.33 But these are best seen as highlighting aspects of the broader regimen, not displacing it.
As in culture at large, the topic of nervous disorders received increasing attention in Wesley's publications and private letters through the course of his ministry. The most developed instance of this attention is a set of 'Thoughts' he composed in May 1784 and published as an essay in the Armiman Magazine two years later.
While the final version of these thoughts was dated from the estate 28 See JW to Susanna Knapp, Mar. 25, 1781 (vol. 30 in this edn.), where JW comments that her nervous disorder may perhaps 'be entirely removed if you can take advice [on regimen]. And I think you can, by God's assistance'.
29 Sermon 47, 'Heaviness through Manifold Temptation', III.2, 2:227 in this edn.
30The best example is 'Thoughts', §10, below.
31 JW's summary in Survey of the Wisdom of God, 'Preternatural State of the Human Body', §6 (earlier in this volume).
32 See also the response to the question of why 'so many of our preachers fall into nervous disorders' at the 1778 Annual Conference, in Minutes (1778), Q. 23,
10:483 in this edn.; and digested in the 'Large' Minutes, Q, 28, 10:916 in this edn.
33 See Minutes (1768), Q. 23, A. 1.3, 10:361 in this edn.; Sermon 89, 'The More Excellent Way', I, 3:267 in this edn.; Sermon 93, 'Redeeming the Time', II.46, 3:326-27 in this edn.; JW to Susanna Knapp, Mar. 25, 1781 (vol. 30 in this edn.); and JW to Sarah Wesley Jr., July 17, 1781 (vol. 30 in this edn.). See also
'Thoughts', §7, below.
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
of David Leslie, sixth Earl of Leven, in Scotland, Wesley composed them over several days prior, as he visited Methodist societies across
Scotland.34 Thus, there is no sense that he understood concern for this issue to be limited to the upper class. Wesley's 'Thoughts on "Nervous Disorders'" was never republished during his life, so the only variant reading is a correction that Wesley entered by hand in his personal copy (noted below).
34See JW, Diary, May 9-20, 1784, 23:485-86 in this edn.
Medical and Health Writings Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders'; Particularly That Which Is Usually Termed 'Lowness of Spirits"
1. When physicians meet with disorders which they do not understand, they commonly term them 'nervous'—a word that conveys to us no determinate idea, but is a good cover for learned ignorance.1 2 But these are often no natural disorder of the body, but the hand of God upon the soul, being a dull consciousness of the want of God, and the unsatisfactoriness of everything here below. At other times it is conviction of sin, either in a higher or a lower degree. It is no wonder that those who are strangers to religion should not know what to make of this; and that consequently all their prescriptions should be useless, seeing they quite mistake the cause.
2. But undoubtedly there are nervous disorders which are purely natural. Many of these are connected with other diseases, whether acute or chronical. Many are the forerunners of various distempers, and many the consequences of them. But there are those which are not connected with others, being themselves a distinct, original distemper. And this frequently arises to such a height that it seems to be one species of madness. So one man imagines himself to be made of glass. Another thinks he is too tall to go in at the door. This is often termed the 'spleen' or 'vapours'; often 'lowness of spirits'— a phrase that, having scarce any meaning, is so much the fitter to be given to this unintelligible disorder. It seems to have taken its rise from hence. We sometimes say a man is 'in high spirits'. And the proper opposite to this is, 'he is low-spirited'. Does this not imply that a kind of faintness, weariness, and listlessness affects the whole body, so that he is disinclined to any motion, and hardly cares to move hand or foot? But the mind seems chiefly to be affected, having lost its relish of everything, and being no longer capable of enjoying the things it once delighted in most. Nay, everything round about is not only flat and insipid, but dreary and uncomfortable. It is not strange if, to one in this state, life itself is become a burden— yea, so insupportable a burden that many who have all this world can give desperately rush into an unknown world, rather than bear it any longer.
1Arminian Magazine 9 (1786): 52-54, 94—97.
2 JW is echoing Robert Whytt: 'physicians have bestowed the character of "nervous" on all those disorders whose nature and causes they are ignorant of' (Whytt,
Observations, iii).
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders'
3. But what are the causes of this strange disorder? One cause is the use of spirituous liquors. This is one of the horrid effects which naturally follow the swallowing that fashionable poison.
That liquid fire lays the foundation of numberless diseases, and of this in particular. It is amazing that the preparing or selling of this poison should be permitted (I will not say in any Christian country but) in any civilized state. 'O, it brings in a considerable sum of money to the government.' True. But is it wise to barter men's lives for money? Surely that gold is bought too dear, if it is the price of blood. Does not the strength of every country consist in the number of its inhabitants? If so, the lessening their number is a loss which no money can compensate. So that it is inexcusable ill husbandry to give the lives of useful men for any sum of money whatever.
4. But a more extensive cause of this disorder than the use of drams, I apprehend, is the use of tea—particularly where it is taken either in large quantities, or strong, or without cream and sugar.3
'Nay, weak tea is far more hurtful.' This is a senseless, shameless falsehood. I long drank hot sugar and water instead of tea, and it did me no hurt at all. But three cups of strong tea will now make my hand shake so that I can hardly write. And let any try the experiment. If any tea make his hand shake, it will not be weak tea but strong. This has exceedingly increased the number of nervous complaints throughout the three kingdoms.4 And this furnishes us with a satisfactory answer to the common question, 'Why are these complaints so general now, which were scarce heard of two or three centuries ago?'5 For this plain reason, two or three centuries ago no tea was drank in either Britain or Ireland.
5. But allowing both tea and spirituous liquors to have contributed largely to the increase of nervous disorders, yet it may be doubted whether one or both of them are the principal causes of them. The principal causes of them (particularly among those who do not work for their living) are, as Dr. Cadogan justly observes, indolence, intemperance and irregular passions.6
3 Note that Wesley is not calling now for total abstinence from tea, as in his earlier Letter to a Friend Concerning Tea (1748), but for moderation.
41.e., England, Scotland, and Ireland. 'Britain' would include England and Scotland.
5Cf. Cheyne, English Malady, ii.
6 William Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, and All Chronical Diseases (London: Dodsley, 1771), 6; reproduced in JW's extract, 1.4.
Medical and Health Writings First, indolence, the not using such a degree of exercise as the constitution requires. To illustrate this: Our body is composed of earth, water, air, and fire; and the two latter are as necessary as the two former. To supply these that curious engine, the lungs, continually take in the air, to every particle of which a particle of fire is attached; which being detached from it, is mingled with the blood.'
Now exercise quickens the motion of the lungs, and enables them to collect from the air a due quantity of fire. The nerves are the conductors of this ethereal fire,7 8 vulgarly called the 'animal spirits'.
If this is duly diffused through the whole body, we are lively and vigorous. If it is not (which without exercise it cannot be) we soon grow faint and languid. And if other disorders do not ensue, those termed 'nervous' surely will, with that whole train of symptoms which are usually comprised in what is termed 'lowness of spirits'.
6. Intemperance is another principal cause of this—if not intemperance in drink, which is not quite so common, yet intemperance in meat, the taking more of it than nature requires. Dr.
[George] Cheyne well observes it is not generally the quality, but the quantity, of what we eat which hurts us.9 What hurts the nerves in particular is the eating too much animal food, especially at night—much more, the eating at one meal foods of several different kinds. If we consider how few observe this, we shall not wonder that so many have nervous disorders. Especially among those that have an opportunity of indulging themselves daily in variety, and who are hereby continually tempted to eat more than nature requires.
7. But there is another sort of intemperance of which, I think, Dr.
Cadogan does not take the least notice. And yet it is the source of more nervous diseases than even intemperance in food. I mean intemperance in sleep, the sleeping longer than nature requires. This alone will account for the weak nerves of most of our nobility and gentry. Not that I would insist upon the old rule,
7JW drew this understanding from John Freke; see Desideratum, 1.5-7. He reiterated it in an addition in his own voice to the 3rd edn. of Survey of the Wisdom of God (1777), 1:139, 'But may it not be doubted whether the primary end of respiration be not to supply the whole animal machine with the ethereal fire, a particle of which is connected with every particle of air? Is not this detached from it by the action of the lungs and thence communicated to every part of the body? And is not this the true vital flame, the original source of life and motion?' It also appears in JW's 1788 sermon 'What is Man', §§3-4, 4:20-21 in this edition.
8Cf. Desideratum, Preface, §7.
9 See George Cheyne, The English Malady; or, A Treatise of Nervous Diseases of all Kinds (London: George Strahan, 1733), 159-65.
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
Sex horas quivis poscit, septemque scho laris; Octo viator habet; nebulo quisque novem.10
I would allow between six and seven hours to an average, to a healthy man; or an hour more, between seven and eight hours, to an unhealthy man. And I do not remember that in threescore years I have known either man or woman who laid longer in bed than this
(whether they slept or no) but in some years they complained of 'lowness of spirits'.
The plain reason of which seems to be, while we sleep all the springs of nature are unbent. And if we sleep longer than is sufficient, they are relaxed more than is sufficient, and of course grow weaker and weaker. And if we lie longer in bed, though without sleep, the very posture relaxes the whole body—much more when we are covered up with clothes, which throw back on the body whatever perspires from it. By this means it is stewed in the moist vapour. It sucks in again what nature had cast out, and the flesh is
(as it were) parboiled therein, and becomes more and more soft and flabby. And the nerves suffer at least as much hereby as any other part of the habit. I cannot therefore but account this, the lying too long in bed, the grand cause of our nervous disorders.
8. And this alone sufficiently answers the question, 'Why are we more nervous than our forefathers?' Because we lie longer in bed.
They—rich and poor—slept about eight, when they heard the curfew bell; and rose at four, the bell ringing at* 11 that hour (as well as at eight) in every parish in England. We rise (if not obliged to work for a living) at ten, eleven, or twelve. Is it any wonder then, were there no other cause, that we complain of'lowness of spirits'?
9. Yet something may be allowed to 'irregular passions'. For as long as the soul and body are united, those undoubtedly affect the body—the nerves in particular. Even violent joy, though it raises the spirits for a time, does afterwards sink them greatly. And every one knows what an influence fear has upon our whole frame.
Nay, even 'hope deferred maketh the heart sick',12 puts the mind
10 A traditional Latin couplet, rendered in verse in AM 10 (1787), p. 224:
Six hours for sleep the human frame requires; Hard students may to seven incline; To eight, the men whom toil or travelling tires;
But lazy knaves will all have nine.
II Orig., 'all'; changed by JW in his personal copy of AM.
12 Prov. 13:12.
Medical and Health Writings all out of tune. The same effect have all foolish and hurtful desires.
They 'pierce us through with many sorrows'.13 They occasion a deep depression of the spirits. So, above all, does inordinate affection, whereby so many, refusing to be comforted, sorrow even unto death.
10. But is there no cure for this sore evil? Is there no remedy for lowness of spirits? Undoubtedly there is, a most certain cure, if you are willing to pay the price of it. But this price, is not silver or gold, nor anything purchasable thereby. If you would give all the substance of your house for it, it would be utterly despised. And all the medicines under the sun avail nothing in this distemper. The whole materia medico14 put together will do you no lasting service. They do not strike at the root of the disease. But you must remove the cause, if you wish to remove the effect.
But this cannot be done by your own strength. It can only be done by the mighty power of God. If you are convinced of this, set about it trusting in him and you will surely conquer.
First, sacredly abstain from all spirituous liquors. Touch them not, on any pretence whatever. To others they may sometimes be of use, but to nervous persons they are deadly poison.
Secondly, if you drink any, drink but little tea; and none at all without eating, or without sugar or cream. 'But you like it without.'
No matter. Prefer health before taste.
Thirdly, every day of your life take at least an hour's exercise between breakfast and dinner. (If you will, take another hour before supper, or before you sleep.) If you can, take it in the open air; otherwise, in the house. If you cannot ride,15 or walk abroad, use within a dumb bell, or a wooden horse.16 If you have not strength to do this for an hour at a time, do it at twice or thrice. Let nothing hinder you. Your life is at stake. Make everything yield to this.
Fourthly, take no more food than nature requires. Dine upon one thing (except pudding or pie). Eat no flesh at supper, but something light and easy of digestion.
Fifthly, sleep early and rise early. Unless you are ill, never lie in bed much above seven hours. Then you will never lie awake. Your flesh will be firm, and your spirits lively.
Sixthly, above all, 13 Cf. 1 Tim. 6:10.
14 Collection of physical medicines.
15Orig., 'rise'; changed by JW in his personal copy of AM.
16 See the description of both items in the introduction.
Thoughts on 'Nervous Disorders
Give not17 your passions way; God gave them to thee under lock and key.'8
Beware of anger! Beware of worldly sorrow! Beware of the fear that hath torment!19 Beware of foolish and hurtful desires! Beware 5 of inordinate affection! Remember the kind command, 'My son, give me thy heart!'20 Then shall there be no more complaining of 'lowness of spirits'! But the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep thy heart and mind in Christ Jesus!21
Melville House22 10 May 20, 1784 17Orig., 'Give not to'; changed by JW in his personal copy of AM.
18 Cf. George Herbert, Church Porch, st. 24:
Lose not thy self, nor give thy humours way:
God gave them to thee under lock and key.
19 See 1 John 4:18.
20Prov. 23:26.
21 See Phil. 4:7.
22 Melville House, an estate near Collessie in Fife, Scotland, was the seat of David Leslie (1722-1802), sixth Earl of Leven. JW was being hosted by the Countess Wilhelmina (Nisbet) Leslie (c. 1724-98) and her children. See]W, Journal, May 20, 1784, 23:312 in this edn.
MEDICAL ADVICE AND RECEIPTS
IN THE
'ARMINIAN MAGAZINE'
An Introductory Comment In addition to his new sermons and essays, and a serialization of his Survey of the Wisdom of God, John Wesley filled the Arminian Magazine with a plethora of extracts—both long and short—of published material by other authors that he thought would be of interest to his readers. He also inserted many manuscript letters and other communications from Methodist preachers and followers. A common genre for inclusion were accounts of miraculous cures of ailments, when no physic could help.' But through the years that Wesley exercised editorial control over the magazine a few scattered health receipts and pieces of medical advice also show up. In every case but one, these were drawn from published sources (either directly or via an intermediary setting). Two of the items included in AM 8 (1785), drawn from Theophilus Lobb, were already present in Primitive Physic, drawn from another of Lobb's publications.
The items are gathered here in the interest of providing as complete of a record as possible of Wesley's engagement in the role of 'priest/physician'.
'See, for example, AM 5 (1782): 251-57, 312-318; 9 (1786): 43—44; and 10 (1787): 35-37.
624 Medical and Health Writings
A Cure for the Cancer in the Breast
AM 7 (1784): 555
Keep it moist with linseed oil, and often wash it with milk.
A Method of Saving Frozen Limbs
by a Native of Russia
AM 8 (1785): 222
In Russia it is customary in severe frosty weather, instead of giving the hat on meeting, as with us, for people to stop and peep into each other's faces. If nothing is amiss, they pass in silence. But if the nose, the ears, or either cheek appears frozen,2 notice is given by the stranger, by saying, 'Sir, your nose, or your right ear', etc., and so passes on. Upon this the affected person applies a poultice of snow, and in a short time it recovers.
In February 1772 I haled out of the mud three river turtles and, carrying them home, they remained some weeks in a[n] open cellar.
When finding them (in a very severe frost) froze as stiff and hard as ice, I determined to make a trial. They were instantly put into a pail of water, fresh drawn from a well. In a few hours the two largest were well recovered, and as lively as when I caught them.
In the winter of 1769 I had a box of four oranges froze as hard as ice. They were put into water just as drawn from a well. They recovered and squeezed as well as if they had not been froze. One of them I placed in a window. It froze quite hard a second time, and was in like manner recovered and became as sound as ever.3
A Remedy for the Palsy
AM 8 (1785): 327
Mr. William Morris of New Street, in Cloth-Fair, London, aged sixty-one years, a barber by trade and the watchman in Bartholomew Close, was taken on Friday, June 13, 1760, with the palsy in his right hand, so far as his wrist.
Fie had neither pain nor feeling in his hand or fingers, which of course became useless.
2JW or the editor added a note 'It is to be understood that the person whose nose, etc., is frozen is insensible of its being so, there being no feeling in the frozen part.'
3 This account appeared originally in Pennsylvania Magazine 2 (1776): 64-65 signed 'T. C. D.' One of JW's contacts in North America may have sent it to him, as JW also published two poems taken from Pennsylvania Magazine 1 (1775): 183,
Medical Advice and Receipts in the Arminian Magazine' 625
He was three weeks an outpatient at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and used a variety of medicines without benefit.
July the 5th, he read in the Westminster Journal Dr. Lobb's account of a boy cured of lameness by the outward application of a liquor made with the yolk of a new-laid egg and water.
In two or three days after, he began the use of the egg-liquor; his wife rubbing his hand and fingers with it three or four times a day, for about a quarter of an hour, and in a week's time he recovered the used of his hand, and became able to shave again.4
Method of Curing a Violent Sprain
AM 8 (1785): 327-28
Suppose it be in the ankle.
1. Let it be fomented with vinegar, a little warm, four or five minutes at a time, once every four hours; this will render the circulation of the fluids in the parts affected more easy, and either prevent a swelling, or promote its subsiding.
2. Let the person stand three or four minutes at a time on both his feet, in their natural posture, and sometimes move the sprained foot; and sometimes, when sitting with his foot on a low stool, let him move it, this way and that, as he can bear it; this will contribute much to contract the over-stretched vessels, and to recover a due circulation of their fluids through them.
3. Let a gentle, dry friction, with a warm hand, be sometimes used to the parts affected, which will conduce much to the same ends.
4. Two hours after every application of the vinegar, let the part be just wet with the rectified spirits of wine, and then gently rubbed.
By these means persons have recovered from the effects of very violent sprains in as few days, as some others have been weeks in recovering by different ways of management; such as a continual resting of the strained foot, and disuse of its motions.5
A Certain Cure for Arsenic, or the Bite of a Viper
AM 10 (1787): 329
Salad oil taken warm and repeated discretionally, will infallibly prevent any bad consequences if the arsenic has not been taken very
4Theophilus Lobb, Medicinal Letters (London: James Buckland, 1763), 29-30.
JW had added this receipt in 1770 from Lobb's Good Samaritan in a section for 'Lameness' in Primitive Physic (see §143).
5Ibid., 23-24. JW had been printing this treatment regimen, from Lobb's Good Samaritan, in Primitive Physic since 1770 (see PP, §212, receipt #7).
Medical and Health Writings long before. It is the true antidote for arsenic, and the bite of a viper. I could therefore wish, that no one would neglect making use of it as soon as it is discovered that any person has swallowed arsenic.
And as to the bite of a viper, let the wound be well rubbed as soon as possible with warm oil, over a chafing dish, repeatedly at different times; and that alone will effectually cure. But if the poison has extended too far into the body before the oil has been applied, then the patient must drink warm oil at different times, always bathing the wound also with it, and likewise that part of the body where pain may be felt; and this will effectually cure without any other remedies.
With regard to arsenic, I must observe, that a gentle vomit given just after taking it, and then repeatedly drinking very fat mutton broth, will also effectually cure it.6
On the Power of the External Absorption of the Human Body by Dr. Wilkinson
AM 10 (1787): 652-54
The intolerable thirst accompanying an ardent fever is mitigated by immersing the body in warm water. This is frequently proved by the physicians in Italy, where the practice is much used.
It is very well known that the human body gains a considerable additional weight by bathing in warm or cold water. A man whose weight before immersion does not exceed one hundred and forty pounds, having been fifteen minutes in the bath, after being wiped perfectly dry, shall be found heavier on weighing again by sometimes thirty, sometimes forty ounces, and frequently more.
If a man in extreme thirst immerses himself in water, his sensation of thirst is removed, though he does not by the mouth take in a drop of the fluid. Therefore it appears that the spongy absorbency of his own body is the means by which his drought is relieved.
Immersion is seawater is attended with the same refreshing effect, though drinking that fluid be generally apt to cause thirstiness. We may therefore conclude that the particles of salt which give taste to the seawater are larger in diameter than the diameters of the absorbent orifices, and that the particles of liquid in which the salt floats and is dissolved are less in diameter than the mouths of the absorbents; and consequently that the skin, like a filter, separates the saline parts from the menstruum which contains them and imbibes or admits the aqueous element in its pure and divested
6Scots Magazine 34 (May 1772): 242.
Medical Advice and Receipts in the Arminian Magazine' 627 simplicity, which thereby becomes well adapted to the purposes of the animal economy. It is probable that no menstruum whatsoever is so perfect and immediate a solvent for saline bodies as this fluid vehicle of the sea-salt when pure and unmixed. This appears by the great and wonderful benefits derived from sea-bathing, especially in scrofulous or scorbutic disorders. Sea-bathing, properly directed, gives relief in all the tribe of diseases which are generally allowed to proceed from a redundancy of saline or acrimonious particles floating in the vital juices, or accumulated upon the glands which are appointed to separate them from those fluids, that they may be discharged (their egress being facilitated by the preparatory comminution and previous dissolution in the most convenient aqueous menstruum).
It does not seem impossible, therefore, that even a dropsy may be cured by sea-bathing. I could procure a striking instance of its efficacy in this disease, were it to my present purpose. A theory might also be advanced to show how this disorder may be occasioned by a concretion of saline particles forming obstructions in the urinary emunctories," as founded upon experiment, and careful examination and inspection of hydropical subjects; which concretions dissolving and expelled, the cure is accomplished. But I shall pretermit these disquisitions, my design being only to show that the body has an absorbent power in a much greater degree than is generally supposed, and to mention how, in some cases, a proper attention to this quality may become extremely useful to mankind.
There is not, perhaps, a more terrible calamity incident to the seafaring part of the human race than the extreme want of water.
Many and very frightful are the effects of this unhappy exigence.
Who can peruse the accounts mentioned in almost every printed voyage that is published of the sufferings of seamen from this grievous misfortune, without feeling a sympathetic horror and concern at the affecting narrative of the deplorable extremities to which the victims of this disaster are frequently driven? Like a ship on fire at sea, they burn in a deluge of surrounding waters. Many schemes have therefore been concerted to prevent these miseries by compassionate people—which have yet, I fear, all proved either ineffectual or impracticable. But though the attempts hitherto made for the attainment of this great and beneficent intention have not been attended with competent success, yet I hope to be pardoned if, from the foregoing consideration on the absorbency of the human body
7Orig., 'emunsbories'; a misreading of the original.
Medical and Health Writings which it is presumed they sufficiently demonstrate, I am a little sanguine in my hopes of effectuating the desirable purpose by a method that will appear obvious to all who have attended to those strictures which experience will prove are too perfectly founded in 5 fact to admit of any controversy.8
A Remedy for Corns on the Feet
AM 11 (1788): 98
Roast a clove of garlic on a live coal, or in hot ashes; apply it to the corn and fasten it on with a piece of cloth. This must not be made use of till the moment of going to bed. It softens the corn to such a degree that it loosens, and wholly removes the core in two or three days, however inveterate. Afterwards wash the foot with warm water. In a little time the indurated skin that forms the horny tunic of ^ the corn, will disappear, and leave the part as clean and smooth as if it had never been attacked with any disorder; it is right to renew this application two or three times in twenty-four hours.9
A Cure for the Bite of a Mad Dog
AM 11 (1788): 496
Dry salt is an immediate remedy for the bite of a mad dog. It should be kept on a considerable while, and renewed as often as it grows moist.10
8 The Medical Museum; or a Repository of Cases, Experiments, Researches and Discoveries (London: Richardson and Clark, 1763-64), 2:123-25. See the related discussion in Primitive Physic, §249, receipt #2.
9 Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz, The Toilet of Flora (London: W. Nicoll, 1772), 14; as reprinted in Scots Magazine 34 (1772): 700.
Scots Magazine 34 (Nov. 1772): 592.
APPENDIX A
WESLEY'S TEXT: EDITIONS,
TRANSMISSION, PRESENTATION,
AND VARIANT READINGS
The introduction to Appendix A for the four volumes of Sermons (4:421—30) provides a detailed description of Wesley's publishing practices, the challenges these practices present for preparing a critical edition of his Works, and the guidelines adopted in this edition for selecting and presenting the main copy-text. As a general summary, the text of each of the treatises in this volume is that of the first edition, but incorporates as well all substantive revisions which certainly or almost certainly derive from Wesley (thus we limit ourselves to editions published in Great Britain, in English, and with some connection to Wesley).
The purpose of this appendix is to indicate the textual history of each treatise and provide a guide to textual variants among editions.
Brief details are given for every edition of a treatise published during Wesley's life, including his collected Works of 1771-74. The relationship among these editions is then indicated graphically in a stemma. Finally, there is a list of variant readings with designation of the edition within which they appear. If the edition designation is followed by an arrow (e.g., B-*~), this means that the variant reading listed occurs in that edition and in all edition connected from it downward in the stemma. If there is no arrow, the variant occurs only in the edition(s) listed. Using this list, it is possible to determine the substantive textual content of every edition (within the parameters of the guidelines used in this edition for handling abbreviations and the like; see 4:428-29).
630 Appendix A
A Collection of Receipts for the Use of the Poor A Bristol: Felix Farley, [1745].
B [2nd] Newcastle: John Gooding, 1745. | C 3rd Bristol: Felix Farley, 1746. g (For further details see BibliograI phy, No. 105.) C Variants page line
A-^B, 'see Art. 89'; C, 'see Art. 93'.
read 'Or root of leaves or'; a misprint.
Primitive Physic; or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing most Diseases
[1st] London: [Strahan] for Thomas Trye, 1747.
2nd Bristol: Printed [by Felix Farley, c. l i 2-4 I
1750].
[3rd] Dublin: Printed for Oliver Nelson, 1752.
[4th] Dublin: Printed for Oliver Nelson, I
1754.
5th Bristol: Printed by [Farley] for J. Palmer, 1755.
[6th no known surviving copies] [7th no known surviving copies]
8th Bristol: Printed by John Grabham, l
9th London: Printed by William Strahan, 1761.
Works [10th Dublin: Printed for John Fisher,
1761; slightly corrected 8th edn.].
10th Bristol: Printed by William Pine, I 21-23 1762.
Appendix A
Dublin: John Fisher, 1763; slightly corrected' 8th edn.1].
Bristol: William Pine, 1763; spurious attribution to Pine of Dublin 10th edn.]. no known surviving copies] Bristol: Printed by William Pine, 1765.
Bristol: Printed by William Pine, 1768.
Bristol: Printed by William Pine, 1770.
London: Printed by Robert Hawes, 1772.
[10th [10th [11th 12 12th 13 13th 14 14th 15 15th Works Works, 25:3-149. Bristol: William Pine, 1773. [revision of 14th edn.] London: Robert Hawes, 1774.
London: Robert Hawes, 1776. no known surviving copies] no known surviving copies] London: J. Paramore, 1781.
London: J. Paramore, 1785.
London: Printed and sold at the New Chapel, 1788.
London: Printed and sold at the New-Chapel, 1791.
(For further details see Bibliography, No. 138.) 16 16th 17 17th [18th [19th 20 20th 21 21st 22 22nd 23 23rd Variants page line 123 16 5-M7 lack 'In the first case'; and have 'use' instead of 'take'.
lack 'half a pint of'.
5*M4 end after 'guaiacum'.
5-M7 lack 'for five minutes'.
123 16 123 17 123 17 124 29 125 10 1-M4 lack '(suppose the next day)'.
Works (1773) adds at end of sentence 'an hour before the fit'.
2*M6 lack 'small'.
14-M6 read 'ten, twelve, or fifteen drops'.
125 11 125 12 125 19 125 20 127 05 127 09 1-M lack ', and sometimes a purge,'.
read 'If this' instead of'If a vomit'.
LMlack the parenthetical comment. l-*~5 lack 'but not head foremost'.
1 See the footnote on this edition in the Introduction to the text of Primitive Physic above.
Appendix A 1-M0 read 'Though many have' rather than 'But many have'.
10-M6 read 'vomit an hour after the cold fit begins' instead of 'vomit ... before the cold fit begins'.
12-M6 read 'ten grains' instead of'twenty grains'.
1Mhave 'a gallon' instead of'six quarts'.
change to read 'Meantime boil a handful of sage' and append to prior receipt.
1-M 7 have 'Anoint with' instead of'Wash with'.
1-M read simply 'Or [apply] Venice treacle', [this one moved up a line] 5~M have 'a pint of seawater' instead of 'just so much
. . . purge'.
8vl0 have 'backwards' instead of 'backward'.
10M3 had this remedy in a shortened form: 'Or use water wherein sliced liquorice is steeped, as a common drink.'
10M3 have 'spoonful' instead of'ounce'.
1-M have 'gas of sulphur' instead of 'aqua sulphurata.
1-M7 lack 'or fifteen drops of elixir of vitriol'.
1-M4 and Works have '... evening, and at bed-time till you are well'.
10M3 change 'spoonful' to 'ounce'; 14M7 change to 'two spoonfuls'.
1-M lack 'every morning and night'.
5-M specify 'a pint of seawater'.
1Mlack '(to prevent)'.
1M lack 'To cure it'.
Works reads 'See the extract'.
5M7 read simply 'Make tight ligatures'.
1M begin simply 'Apply tops'.
1-M7, except Works have 'half a pint' instead of'teacupful'; 20, 'quarter of a pint'.
1M3 prescribe 'four' rather than 'two' spoonfuls.
1 lacks the parenthetical comment.
1-M lack 'spoonful'; assumed from previous receipt.
1M2 have 'Resolve' rather than 'Dissolve'.
2M4 read 'knob' instead of'knot'.
1 omits 'Perhaps for four or five hours'.
1M titled only 'A Cancer'.
Appendix A
143 09 9M6 lack'mixed with oil'.
143 21 5^9 have 'gas of sulphur' instead of'aqua sulphurata'.
145 27 1M lack '(to cure)'.
145 31 1M-begin'Or (if broke) tincture ...'.
145 36 1*M lack 'changing them'.
146 03 14M6 lack'at least'.
146 04 14M6 add at the end of the sentence '; afterwards their hands and feet".
146 20 1-M lack 'or Whooping-Cough'.
146 21 1-Mstart 'Or use ...'; because have a prior receipt.
147 01 14M7 have 'salt of wormwood' instead of 'salt of tartar'.
148 08 17 changed'six grains'to'six drops'.
148 21 1-Mlack '(to prevent)'.
148 24 1M lack 'Or'.
148 32 5M6 begin 'To cure, wash with'; because did not have separate section (to cure).
148 32 The Works (1773) edition omits 'Tried' and the asterisk; but adds the comment 'I find nothing equal to this'.
149 04 Works (1773) titles 'A fresh Cold'.
149 29 1-M lack '(in the fit)'.
150 01 20~M3 drop 'drink largely'; apparently assuming 'a quart'.
150 02 1M6 have 'two scruples to half a dram' instead of 'thirty to forty grains'.
150 04 1-M have 'forty to a hundred drops'; 9M6 have 'thirty to sixty drops'.
151 01 1-M lack 'a glass of'.
152 02 2Mhave 'in extremis' instead of 'at the point of death'.
152 34 5-M had 'five grains' instead of 'twenty drops'.
153 05 l-*~ 16 have 'for a month' instead of 'for three to four weeks'.
153 06 1Mhave 'take an ounce of quicksilver'; 5M have 'take of quicksilver and gas of sulphur'.
153 10 2Mhave 'use of' instead of 'fumes of'.
153 10 2-M lack 'lead, or'.
153 24 2M lack'Or'.
Appendix A 1 has 'Drink nothing but' instead of'Take no food but'.
2-^4 lack 'churned in a bottle'.
have 'Tried by my father' instead of 'This cured my father'.
1-M9 have 'Wash the feet often' instead of'Frequently wash the feet'.
1-Mbegin 'Or [apply] the yeast'.
lack 'after paring them close'.
1- >T0 have 'fresh ivy leaves' instead of'bruised ivy leaves'.
2M- have 'piece' instead of'little piece'.
2~Mbegin 'Very frequently, a large nutmeg ...'.
9-*T5, Works have 'advise' instead of'desire'.
have 'a pint and half' instead of'a pint'.
1-M4 have 'sup it' instead of 'sip it'.
1-M 4 have 'olibanum' instead of'frankincense'.
IMS lack 'smooth and'.
1M lack 'Or'. have 'drop into the ear' instead of'drop into it'.
1 begins 'drop into the ear three ...'.
1M7 have 'ten days' instead of'ten nights'.
1 lacks 'or four'.
1M6 are titled 'To cause an easy Delivery'.
14M6 begin 'N.B. The mother's ...'.
1-M titled 'The Diabetes' instead of'A Diabetes'.
5M4, Works, read 'alum posset drink'.
1-M read 'Or drink morning and evening a quarter of pint of alum posset-drink, made as strong as your stomach will bear.'
1-M lack 'twice or thrice a week'.
Works omits 'I suppose he took it from hence'.
lack 'or, wash the mouth with juice of lemons'.
9M6 elide 'half a pint of'.
1-M lack 'It frequently cures in that time'.
14M6 say simply '(See Dr. Tissot)'.
1-M have 'put into it' instead of'put in'.
1M4 lack 'or onion'.
1 has 'ear' instead of 'eye'; a mistake.
9-MO lack 'a suffusion of sixteen, and'.
Appendix A
9-M3 lack 'of twenty-four years standing'.
1-M lack '(i.e. stercus humanum)1.
12-M7 have 'drops of a syrup made with doublerefined'.
5-*-13 lack 'cankers or'.
1M7 lack 'or Eyelids'.
1M7 lack 'or eyelid'.
2M lack 'Going to bed'.
9M7 have 'two pugils' instead of'two handfuls'.
9- *-17 added 'by a long course of using'.
I'M read 'Or of peony root dried and grated fine'.
Works changes 'half a spoonful' to 'two teaspoonfuls'.
1-M6 lack 'morning and evening'.
8- *-13 have 'four drops' instead of'five to six drops'; 14M7 have 'five drops'.
Works replaces 'asarabacca' with 'garden scurvygrass'.
1 has 'see Art. 39'; 2-M-, see Art. 43'.
1-M 7 have 'pint and half' instead of'pint or two'.
1M read 'Or, for a change, use pippin tea, or pippen posset drink, or wood-sorrel'; 5-*-20 read 'Or, for a change, use pippin or wood-sorrel tea, or pippin posset drink or wood-sorrel posset drink'.
1M4 have 'caprifolium' instead of'woodbine'.
2- *-5 end 'brown paper smeared therewith'.
15- *-17 omit 'head and'.
14- *-16 have simply 'Or a treacle plaster'.
Works omits 'Tried'; but adds 'This has all, and more than all, the effect of a blister'.
1-M add ', a little at a time' after 'every fit'.
8 reads 'should use' instead of'should not use'; a mistake.
15- *-21 have 'hereby' instead of'thereby'.
14 has 'other Vermin' instead of'Bugs'.
10- *-16 read 'in oxycrate (i.e. vinegar and water)'.
9- *-14 lack 'powdered'.
1 reads 'dram' instead of'spoonful'.
15, Works have 'powdered seed of flax-weed'.
21 has 'page 124' instead of'page 125'; a mistake.
12M4 lack '(either sparks or clinkers)'.
Appendix A 2M read 'Boil half a handful of tansy in mountain [wine]. Drink one or two glasses in bed.1
10M6 have 'surely' instead of'frequently'.
1M have 'mornings' instead of'months'.
9M2 have 'twelve' instead of'twenty'; 13 has 'fourteen'.
12M4 lack 'the unspotted'.
8 adds 'As Art. 39'; in 9, 'Art. 41'; in 10, 'Art. 41' (but should be 43); in 12M3, 'Art. 60'.
2M7 lack '(commonly called lignum vitae)'.
2M0 have 'into the palm' instead of'upon the palm'.
1-M lack 'if you have catched cold'.
1-Mhave 'any camphorated spirits' instead of'camphorated spirits of lavender'.
1-Msay 'ground-ivy root'.
Works has 'garden scurvy-grass' instead of'asarabacca'.
5-*-16 (not Works) add 'of ipecacuanha, or carduus tea'.
1M6 have 'next morning' instead of'next day'.
1-M read 'slowly juice' instead of'slowly the juice'.
14M8 lack 'page 120'.
have 'three days' instead of'three nights'.
1Mhave 'of strawberry leaves, or of nettles'.
20 lacks ', morning and evening'.
1-M have 'a large burr root'; 5M6 have 'a large burdock root'.
1M6 (not Works) have 'Let it soak therein for twentyfour hours, covered close. Drink a draught of this three or four times, and it will not fail.' in place of the last sentence.
1-M begin 'Drink daily for six weeks a strong decoction...'.
1M7 have 'searsed' instead of'sifted'.
1M7 have 'searse' instead of'sift'.
13 lack 'or a stubborn humour in the eyes', [move this line down three] 1M 4 have 'Drink up this ... '.
1M6 read 'It cures also the quinsy and all sorts of white swellings on the joints'.
12M7 lack 'morning and evening'.
Appendix A
have 'infusion of watercresses' instead of 'decoction of watercresses'.
1*M7 lack 'morning and evening'.
have 'gas of sulphur' instead of'aqua sulphurata'.
1-M read 'Plunge into cold water, and keep as long under it, as can be done without drowning'.
read 'Apply ashes of trefoil mixed with hog's lard. This has cured one that was bit on the nose.'
1~M0 has 'dracontia' instead of'dragon's blood'.
lack 'take three or four purges, and'.
1-M lack 'with a spoonful of fine flour stirred in it'.
10 reads 'surely cures the whites'.
1 lists only 'horsetail'.
1 lacks 'a little'.
8-M7 read 'French bean whilst young'.
8 has 'Dr. Uvedale' instead of'Dr. Hill'.
1~M lack the qualification 'if you are under fifty'.
1-M lack 'or beating'.
Works has 'wine vinegar' instead of'vinegar'.
12-M3 lack 'fasting'.
20~M1 have 'thin skins' instead of'skin'.
14 has 'Sup' instead of 'Sip'.
14-M7 lack 'page 38'.
1M lack 'to the side'.
2M6 had 'one or two drams' instead of'one to two grains'.
20 adds 'every half hour'.
12-M7 have 'salt of wormwood' instead of'salt of tartar'.
1-M lack 'warmish'.
1M7 lack 'and take it'.
Works adds 'or quickbeam'.
1 has 'two ounces' instead of 'two drams'.
2M are titled 'The Quincy (to prevent)'.
2-M begin '(To cure:) Apply'.
14~M7 lack '(for ten or twelve minutes together)'.
14-M7 has only 'vinegar' instead of 'water and vinegar'.
Appendix A 15-M6 have 'eight or ten drops' instead of'eight to twenty drops'.
23 misnumbers as '158'.
20-^23 only editions beginning 'To cure'.
lack 'or June'.
9-M7 lack 'the quantity of'.
15-M7 have 'garlic, pounded' instead of'pounded garlic'.
Works has 'four or five minutes' instead of'till soft'.
9-^13 say 'water' instead of'warm water'.
read 'This also cures palsies, weakness ...'.
say 'page 66'; referring to an earlier edition of Advices.
20-^23 alone have the introduction 'A diet-drink'.
have 'half a pint' instead of 'half a pound'. l-*~8 have 'lignum vitae' instead of'lignum guaiacum'.
20-^23 alone have the parenthetical remark.
1 reads 'Walk a little after it'; 2^4 read 'Wash a little after it'.
5 has 'Art. 419' [should be 415]; 8 has 'Art. 430'; 9 has 'Art. 445'; 10 has 'Art. 454'; 12 has 'Art. 515'; 13 has
'Art. 515' [13].
9 has 'Art. 115' [should be 114]; 10 has 'Art. 115'
[should be 117].
9~M3 titled 'Sinew shrunk from a cut'.
I has 'self-head' instead of 'allheal'; 2-^8 have 'selfheal'.
has 'constant drink' instead of'whole food'.
1- *~4 end after 'milk and water'; 5-*~8 end after 'milk and water mixed'. 8 added a separate receipt: 'Or [the best food is] bread dipped in milk and water'.
read 'The best food is milk and apples'.
22-^23 misspell as 'Dr. Auxham'
have 'gargle with' instead of 'swallow gently'.
2- *T6 (but not Works) specify 'Venice treacle'; but 12-*T6 then add 'Or common treacle'.
1~Mhave 'successively' instead of'omitting a day between'.
2-^20 lack 'or sweet orange'.
Appendix A
have 'twenty to forty drops' instead of 'ten to twenty drops'.
1-M0 have 'glass full' instead of'glass'.
1^-20 specify 'white pepper'.
1~M have 'slice of' instead of'crust of'.
I'M have simply 'Or drink warm water largely'.
8M 6 begin 'In the fit slice ...'.
1-M begin 'Boil onions in wine and salad oil. Apply this as ...'.
1M7 read 'part to the back and part to each groin'.
1-M start 'Or, in extremity, give ...'.
1M is titled 'The Stone (to cure)'.
1M4 lack 'in a fire-shovel'.
12M3 read 'Drink half of it at a time, fasting'.
1-M begin 'Take a spoonful of juice ...'.
1-M0 have simply 'honey' instead of 'clarified honey'.
9~M6 are titled simply 'A Surfeit'.
9-MO have 'Take a nutmeg ...'; 12-M2 have 'Take about a nutmeg ...'.
5~M specify 'half a pint of seawater'.
1-M7 have 'under the stream that falls from a mill; or under ...'.
1-M6 have 'any pains' instead of just 'pains'.
2~M have 'Art. 453'; 5 has 'Art. 429' [should be 425].
1 reads simply 'Or gargle with water in which alum is dissolved'.
8-M2 & Works have 'tooth' instead of 'teeth'.
1 lacks 'or boiled'.
15M6 have 'nourishment and hold'.
1-M have instead 'root of an iris'.
12-*-16 are titled only 'Extreme Thirst'.
1M list only 'Thorns or bones' in the title.
1 specifies 'celandine gathered in June or July'.
end 'quicksilver in water'. l->- lack 'or windy dropsy'.
17-MI end 'electrified daily'.
1-M6 have 'half a pint' instead of 'pint'.
1-M are titled simply 'The Vertigo'.
1-M are titled simply 'Vigilia'.
Appendix A 251 24 5-M4 prescribe 'small doses' of camphor; 15-** 16 change to 'a few grains'.
251 26 8-*-14 lack the specification 'from ten to thirty grains'.
251 31 Works has'take'instead of'use'.
252 05 1 is titled only'Bite of a Viper'.
253 16 1-H6 lack 'across the grain'.
253 20 1-M7 have 'salt of wormwood' instead of 'salt of tartar'.
253 25 Works omits 'for twenty-four hours'.
255 07 5-^20 have'holy oak'instead of'hollyhock'.
255 24 5-*^9 have 'gas of sulphur' instead of 'aqua sulphurata'.
256 28 20 lacks 'every morning'.
256 31 5-^13 have simply:'Or boil an ounce of quicksilver in half a pint of spring-w ater. Use this for common drink.'
257 03 1-M7 have simply 'a dram'.
259 17 13 mistakenly omits 'Anoint'; 14-M6 lack 'Anoint therewith'.
263 01 1-M3 lack 'frequently'.
264 24 l-*~ 13 lack 'generally'.
A Letter to a Friend Concerning Tea A London: Strahan, 1748.
B 2nd Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749.
C Works, 24:264-83. Bristol: William A I B I C Pine, 1773.
(For further details see Bibliography■, No. 155.) Variants page line 276 20 276 24 278 01 284 03 286 06 'since' omitted in A**~B; added in C.
C changes 'occasion that' to 'occasion the'.
C changes 'fruitless expenses' to 'needless expenses'.
A has 'drink it all'; 'at' added in B-*~C.
change 'recovered hereby' to 'recovered thereby'.
Appendix A
Flexney, 1760. I B [2nd] Bristol: W. Pine, 1771. BC Works, 24:284-368. Bristol: William *
The Desideratum; or, Electricity Made Plain and Useful A London: [William Strahan] for W. a Pine, 1773. \ D 4th London: R. Hawes, 1778. p, E 3rd London: New Chapel, 1790.
(For further details see Bibliograp phy, No. 239.) Variants2 page line 304 08 C-^D change 'Mr. Franklin' to 'Dr. Franklin'.
304 10 change 'Mr. Franklin' to 'Dr. Franklin'.
304 21 D changes 'physical part' to 'medical part'.
315 33 E omits'Rubbed brimstone, rosin and wax receive it.'
323 29ff D omits §42.
334 21 D changes 'on the rosin' to 'on the stool with glass legs'.
337 16 C changes'Fuller's Rents in Holborn'to'Lincoln'sInn-fields'.
343 01 D changes'on rosin'to'on the stool'.
343 03 D reads 'Lumber Court' instead of 'Lumbard Court'.
345 07 A has 'From these' rather than 'From thence'.
345 14 D changes 'on the rosin' to 'on the stool with glass legs'.
348 12 A, B, E have'Bednal Green'rather than'Bethnal Green'.
350 23 A-*~C, E misspell 'Spitalfields' as 'Spittlefields'.
2The first edition has several small errors, like 'it's' for 'its', that are ignored in this list.
642 Appendix A
A London: n.p., 1767. A B [2nd] n.l.: n.p., 1774.
C Bristol: n.p., 1779. Abridged and Thoughts on the Sm of Onan titled 'A Word to Whom it may Concern'.
(For further details see Bibliography>, No. 304.) Variants page line 374 09 375 01 375 01 C reads 'French tract of Dr. Tissot'.
C changes the drop title to 'A Word, etc.'.
C adds the note: 'N.B. Much of this treatise is extracted from Dr. Tissot'.
C changes 'returning to his infamous practice' to 'returning to the same'.
C substitutes 'the fatal' for 'a fatal'.
C reads ', and the growth'.
C omits 'which he repeated every day'.
C omits 'more frequently than before'.
B omits 'Thirdly, A total relaxation of the nervous system'.
A and C read 'of changes of the weather'.
C changes 'weakening of the' to 'weakness of'.
C omits the entire first letter.
C changes 'and in my breast' to 'and my breast'.
C changes 'the fits' to 'the fit'.
C changes 'or dreadful' to 'to dreadful'.
C changes 'torturous' to 'torturing'.
C omits 'to the furor uterinus .. .infamy'.
C changes 'inward disorders' to 'inward disorder'.
B changes 'in England) when women' to 'in England) women'.
C omits §§13-14, and its numbering of paragraphs (starting with §15) is 'XIII, XIV, XVI, XV, XIX, XXI,
XVIII, XIX ...'.
change 'Those especially' to 'These especially'.
375 21 376 10 376 13 377 02 377 04 377 38 378 07 378 08 378 13 378 38 379 16 379 22 379 25 379 27 379 31 380 23 380 28 380 29
Appendix A
01 C changes 'hastens the attack' to 'hasten the attack'.
09 C changes 'What pity' to 'What a pity'.
13 C changes 'cast away in' to 'cast in'.
20 C changes 'toward man' to 'toward men'.
20ff C omits 'A consumption ... country'.
27 C changes 'one does' to 'one do'.
34 C changes 'but in letting' to 'but by letting'.
12 C changes 'plants, of' to 'plants to'.
32 C changes 'fat or greasy' to just 'greasy'.
34 C omits 'such are all sorts of cabbage'.
35 C has 'acid' instead of 'acrid'; apparently an error.
36 C omits 'are seldom proper in this. And'.
38 C omits ', and exceeding sparingly'.
01 C omits 'all' and 'fed in healthy places, and'.
02 C omits 'lamb, or'.
03 C omits 'turkey'.
08 C omits '; or to stew them slowly in their own juices'.
12 C reads 'And the use of it is it prevents'.
12ff C omits 'The noble cures ... temptation'.
28 C changes 'and is mortal' to 'it is mortal'.
32 C changes 'a notable decline' to 'hurt'.
02 C changes 'has also all' to 'has all'.
04 C omits 'which, at the first view might appear serviceable'.
05 C omits 'and ever attended with great inconveniencies'.
14 C changes 'digestions' to 'digestion' and omits 'and procure over-copious urines, which exhaust the patients'.
22 C omits ' it may serve for meat and drink'.
04 C omits 'It stands demonstrated that'.
05 C changes 'and that the' to 'and the'.
11 C omits 'by an insistence on its importance, especially to valetudinarians'.
17 C omits 'or contributes more to render it disquieting,
heavy, or overwhelming'.
23 C changes 'means of motions' to 'means of motion'.\ 25 B-^C change 'as the battledore ... better still' to 'in the house. Particularly a wooden horse'.
Appendix A
C changes the opening sentence to 'The noblest restorative is the cold bath'.
C omits 'I order the former to be taken three times a day'.
C changes 'cold bath' to 'it'.
C omits 'I knew ... much refreshed'.
C changes 'also for a' to 'for the'.
A Bristol: William Pine, 1769. A B Works, 25:150-454. Bristol: William Advices with Respect to Health Pine, 1773. g C 3rd London: R. Hawes, 1776.
D 4th London: New Chapel, 1789.
(For further details see Bibliography, No. 315.) Variants page line 403 35 404 40 410 23 412 29ff C-^D omit footnote a.
B alone contains footnote b.
B changes 'force it violently' to just 'force it'.
omit 'the patient has drank for several days, and'; B rewrites sentence as 'Until the patient has drank for many days, and the heat ... this filth cannot be thoroughly removed'.
B deletes last sentence of paragraph.
A, C, D read 'the four following'.
413 16 413 28 413 28 B rewrites sentence as: 'At such a term we may prevent, or at least mitigate, the most perplexing disorders, by carefully observing the following points'.
B omits 'a downy coverlet, or'.
414 20
Appendix A
B omits the parenthetical material.
B changes 'the very thought of' to 'his'.
B changes 'procure a complete termination of' to 'fully cure'.
C-^D change 'healthiest of all' to 'best for them'.
B changes 'breast' to 'lungs'.
B deletes 'at once'.
B changes 'the matter it contains' to 'itself'.
B changes 'their legs sometimes in' to 'their legs in'.
B changes 'the best are often ineffectual' to 'the best often is ineffectual'; O-D change to 'the best is often ineffectual'.
B changes 'Whenever they are both' to 'When they are both'.
In footnote h, B changes 'ten hours' to 'a few hours'.
B shortens footnote i to: 'A mixture of oil and spirit of hartshorn, as a liniment and application round the neck, deserves the first place amongst local applications against the inflammatory quinsey'.
B shortens footnote j to: 'Dr. Pringle prefers a decoction of figs in milk and water, to which he adds a small quantity of spirit of sal ammoniac'.
B reduces to '...fifth, and on the seventh or eighth, the patient is entirely well'.
B omits 'but attended with violent wakenings'.
B changes 'defluxion from the brain' to 'defluxion from the glands'.
Footnote m appears only in B.
B omits 'upon the parts'.
B omits 'too, by reason the spittle of the person so bit
is sooner infected'.
A has 'dissolved. With the addition', omitting 'This'.
B changes 'most raging' to 'utmost raging'.
B omits 'the appearance of'.
B omits 'persons in the smallpox'.
B changes 'but warm water' to 'but water'.
Appendix A C-^D change 'may suffice then' to 'may suffice'.
B omits footnote o.
A begins sentence 'First, immediately'; B-*-D begin sentence 'Immediately'.
B changes 'drowsiness and' to 'drowsiness or'.
have 'portion' instead of'potion'.
B changes 'very effectually to his cure' to 'and are very effectual to cure'.
B omits 'would degenerate into a dangerous thickness'.
B changes 'Notwithstanding, the patient' to 'Yet the patient'.
B has 'portion' instead of'potion'.
B omits the last two sentences of the paragraph.
A reads 'very rarely', omitting 'needful'.
A reads 'they are to be put'; corrected to 'he is to be put' in B^D.
B omits 'when he would procure them sleep,'.
B has 'portion' instead of'potion'.
B changes 'If fevers' to 'If the fever'.
B changes 'every other eight days' to 'every eight days'.
B substitutes 'twenty grains' for 'half a quarter of an ounce'.
B changes 'proper assistance' to 'proper help'.
B changes 'Whenever, even' to 'If, even'.
B changes 'And if the complaint be very mild' to 'But if the complaint be mild'.
B changes 'which some people dust' to 'dusted'.
In footnote s B omits 'and is frequently used by the common people of this country'.
B changes 'afford him the speediest' to 'afford the speediest'.
A-^B have 'portion' instead of'potion'.
A-H3 have 'portion' instead of'potion'.
A has 'portion' instead of'potion'.
B reads 'And at may'; a printer's error.
omit 'cream of'.
Appendix A
change 'particularly of sorrel' to 'particularly sorrel'.
B omits 'and the use of milk'.
B omits this sentence.
B omits 'wiser than such a miserable assistant'.
A omits 'of the food'. B changes to 'windiness of the food: such as beer, especially very new beer, certain fruits'.
B changes 'by the use of drink moderately spiced, and especially camomile tea' to 'or by camomile tea'.
B changes 'pretty warm water' to 'warm water'.
end paragraph with 'confined (Tissot had 'confided'); C->~D change to 'committed'.
C-HD change 'the patients rave' to 'the patient rave'
(failing to adjust verb number).
B changes 'diluting drink' to just 'drink'.
have '94' instead of '24'; a mistake.
B changes 'distemper continue' to 'distemper continues'.
B changes 'the first ones are' to 'the first are'.
B changes 'red currants' to 'currants'.
B changes 'these general causes' to 'the general causes'.
B omits 'violent attacks'.
B changes 'and others which continued a few' to 'or'.
B omits 'in quantity'.
A reads 'Besides which, in such cases'.
B omits 'in such cases'.
A has '13' instead of '23'; a mistake.
B changes 'This is the custom' to 'That is the custom'.
O-D change 'fomentation' to 'fermentation'; a mistake.
0~D change 'When by' to 'But when'.
O-D change 'remove it' to 'removes it'.
read 'and the poultices'; a mistake.
A has 'Weekly' instead of 'Weakly'; a mistake.
Appendix A
22 A-^B read 'They should be used' instead of'It should be used'; a mistake.
42 A-^B have 'march mallows'; a misspelling retained from Tissot.
21 B omits'or an ounce and a half 38 C misnumbers '278' as '272'.
01 B omits 'chervil'.
11 B omits 'the physiognomy'.
29 O-D move 'when the part of the bowels which is fallen down inflames' to the beginning of the next sentence/section.
22 O-D change 'effected' to 'affected'; a mistake.
19 B changes 'aromatic herb has' to 'aromatic hath'.
29 B changes 'Thin watery' to 'These watery'.
21 A-^B have 'portion' instead of 'potion'.
32 C-^D change 'their arm' to 'the arm'.
17ff B omits this paragraph.
07 B omits ', some cherries'.
03 C-*~D change 'or sixteen' to 'or ten or twelve'.
07 B changes 'violent headaches' to 'headaches'.
25 B changes 'symptoms which manifest' to 'signs and causes of'.
27 B omits the opening clause and changes 'if he' to 'If a man'.
35 A reads 'florid ruddiness', omitting 'lively'.
13 B omits 'and especially a bitter taste'.
41 B omits footnote b.
02 B omits 'of elder' and 'of wild corn poppy'.
09 B changes 'two ounces' to 'an ounce'.
17 C-*~D change 'portions' to 'proportions'.
36 B changes 'of each thirty grains' to simply 'twenty grains'.
10 B changes 'two ounces' to 'an ounce'.
04 B changes 'ten grains' to 'six grains'.
09 B changes 'Take one ounce' to 'Take half an ounce'.
24 B changes 'flower of brimstone' to 'flour of brimstone'.
11 B changes 'weighing two grains' to 'weighing a grain and a half'.
Appendix A
B changes 'with twelve or fifteen grains' to 'with ten or fifteen grains'.
B changes 'or lavender' to 'or of lavender'.
A has 'diaphna' instead of 'diapalma'; a mistake.
PRESCRIPTION FOR ABRAHAM BRAMES
Abraham Brames (1742-1812) was a class leader and society steward among the Methodists in Rochester and Brompton, Kent, until
1788. He was also a local preacher, from at least 1769.1 On October 17-18, 1780 John Wesley was visiting Sevenoaks, Kent, about twelve miles southwest of Rochester.2 While in Sevenoaks Wesley learned that Brames was suffering a bout of dysentery. On October
18 Wesley wrote out this advice for Brames. There is no address on the sheet, or anything else to suggest that it was part of a letter. Instead, it stands as the only known surviving manuscript in Wesley's hand intended solely as a prescription.
[Transcription of Wesley's advice]
Oct. 18th, 1780 Your diet may be bread pudding, sago, salep, or any rice-meats, with grapes.3
Your drink, tea (green) and lemonade, as much as your stomach will take.
When the flux is gone, use light diet still, and return by degrees to your usual food.
But do not, for a week or two, use malt drink. Rather take toast and water, with a little red wine, or a very little brandy.
J.W.
[Brames's endorsement on the verso] This is the handwriting of the late Rev. Mr. John Wesley, that man of God, and was his prescription for me when I had the dysentery or bloody flux, of which disorder a great number died. I followed this direction and, thank God, recovered.
Abm. Brames Source: MARC, MA 1977/204. This image and transcription are published with the permission of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, and the trustees for Methodist Church Purposes,
The Methodist Church in Britain.
1 For more on Brames, see Methodist Magazine 39 (1816): 201-10.
2JW, Journal, Oct. 17, 1780, 23:188 in this edn.
3 Cf. the similar directions added in 1781 to Primitive Physic (§117, receipt #6 above).
APPENDIX C
HEALTH ADVICE THROUGH
CORRESPONDENCE
The purpose of this appendix is to provide a glimpse of John Wesley carrying on his ministry of priest/physician in correspondence with friends and fellow Methodists in the later decades of his life. The first section illustrates Wesley offering health advice, through his correspondence with Alexander Knox. The second section illustrates descriptions of health concerns that correspondents like Elizabeth Ritchie included in their letters, often in response to Wesley's solicitation.
I. John Wesley Letters to Alexander Knox This first section focuses on letters that Wesley wrote to Alexander Knox (1757-1831).1 Knox was a native of Londonderry, Ireland. On John Wesley's first visit to Londonderry in 1765, Alexander's father (also named Alexander, d. 1770) hosted Wesley at their home.2 The Knox family hosted Wesley several times over the next decade, as well as other Methodist preachers. The first surviving evidence of Wesley's specific engagement with the younger Alexander is a personal note of advice dated June 6, 1775, when Knox was eighteen years of age. This initiated a running correspondence between the two over the next fifteen years, of which forty-nine letters from Wesley to Knox (after the initial note) have survived.3 While the letters often deal with business and other matters, a prominent strand (particularly in the early letters) is Wesley's advice to Knox on both spiritual and physical health. Knox had been sickly since infancy, which impacted him psychologically as well. Wesley's advice engaged all of these dimensions.
This set of correspondence was chosen for a sample in part because it is so complete, gathered in a single collection at the Museum of The Upper Room, in Nashville, Tennessee (the excerpts below are transcribed with the permission of the Museum). This
1 For biographical reflection on Knox, see WHS 22 (1939): 67—71; and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
2 See JW, Journal, May 11, 1775, 21:507-8 in this edn.
3None of Knox's letters to JW survive.
Appendix C correspondence also reflects Wesley's engagement with different types of correspondents. His relationship with Knox at first was pastoral guidance to a member of his movement. But Knox chose to distance himself from the Methodism of his youth in his early twenties, joining the Church of England in Ireland. This is reflected in both the reduced number and the tone of letters starting in 1780;
Wesley now engaged Knox more as a long-time friend, who occasionally provided financial and other aid to the Methodist cause, and who kept Wesley abreast of deaths in his family.
One other reason for choosing this set of correspondence is how it appears in the largest current published collection of Wesley's later letters. This edition, by John Telford, contains only twentytwo of the fifty items, and eight of the letters included silently elide sections containing health advice.4 This is because Telford had no access to the holographs, only to excerpts that Knox transcribed in his published Remains.5 The full text of all the letters will appear in this edition. We extract here only the sections focussed on health advice (both spiritual and physical); but thereby we supply the missing sections to the letters in Telford.
June 6, 17756 I advise you:
Never to rest till you are altogether a Christian, all devoted to God in soul and in body.
Never to sit up much later than nine, nor lie later than five. You want eight hours sleep.
In spite of all hindrances, to ride at least an hour every fair day.
To dine moderately on mutton or veal; I believe mutton is rather the best.
To eat as much as you like of spinach, turnips, asparagus, artichokes, and summer fruits: particularly strawberries, gooseberries, currants, mulberries, grapes, and damascene [i.e., damson] plums.
To go into the water every mild day. And 4 John Telford (ed.), The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., 8 vols. (London:
Epworth, 1931). The letters with elided sections are dated Jan. 27, 1776; May 28,
1776; June 5, 1778; Sept. 27, 1778; Oct. 28, 1778; July 31, 1779; Jan. 28, 1780; and Nov. 18, 1780.
'Alexander Knox, Remains, 2nd edn. (London: Duncan and Cochran, 1837), 4:1-20.
6This first item is not technically a letter; there is no address information. JW was in Londonderry that day and likely hand-delivered this note of advice to young Alexander Knox.
Appendix C 655
To expect that God will do nothing but good both to your soul and body.
Source: holograph (hand delivered); Upper Room Museum, L-2.
Endorsement: by Knox, 'Directions given to me by / The Rev. John Wesley, M.A.\
January 27, 1776 My Dear Alleck, I wrote a particular answer to your last a day or two after I received it. It is well if someone did not intercept it; otherwise I know not how it could miscarry. Your illness will continue just so long as is necessary to suppress the fire of youth, to keep you dead to the world, and to prevent your seeking happiness where it never was nor ever can be found. Considered in this view, it is a great blessing and a proof of God's watchful care over you. I suspect the eruption which you speak of to be neither better nor worse than the itch. If so, the taking internal medicines is as wise as the taking them to kill lice or fleas. I wonder that, to this day, many excellent physicians are ignorant of this. I advise you to look into the Primitive Physic.
Those medicines are both cheap and safe. The bark is not a safe medicine (I mean if you take it in specie/ As far as infusions or light decoctions of it, they are excellent medicines). [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-3.
April 1, 1776 My Dear Alleck, I am fully persuaded all your disorders depend upon a deep scurvy.
What influence the bark may have upon this I cannot tell; however, I have no objection to a decoction or infusion of it. I object only to your taking it in specie, because I can never reconcile to common sense the introducing ounce after ounce of powdered post into an human stomach. But I really think you rather want antiscorbutic medicines, such as watercresses, or decoction of nettles, or burdock. This accounts for your almost continual depression of spirits, which is a bodily as well as spiritual malady. And it is permitted to repress the fire of youth and to wean you from the desire of earthly things. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-4.
7I.e., ingest the (powdered) Peruvian bark itself.
656 Appendix C
May 28, 1776 My Dear Alleck, I received yours a day or two ago at my return from the north of Scotland. The scurvy is either hot or cold. The hot scurvy is constantly attended with costiveness. The cold scurvy tends to the opposite extreme. In the former, juice of nettles; in the latter, Seville oranges are a sovereign remedy. But I judge your disorder to be but partly natural, and partly divine—the gift of God, perhaps by the ministry of angels, to balance the natural petulance of youth; to save you from foolish desires, and to keep you steady in the pursuit of that better part which shall never be taken from you. Whether you have more or less sorrow, it matters not. You want only more faith.
This is the one point. Dare to believe! On Christ lay hold! See all your sins on Jesus laid, and by his stripes you are healed. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-5.
August 10, 1776 [...] A thought comes into my mind that you will not fully recover your health without change of air. I am afraid the sea air does you more hurt than the seawater does you good. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-6.
September 20, 1776
[...] Two or three physicians had informed the provost of Brechin (in Scotland) that 'they had done all that was within their power, but nothing would avail. His son must expect to have his fits till his dying day.' He took six or eight drops of laudanum, fasting, for six or seven mornings and has had no fit since. Nevertheless, bathing may be added thereto, while the weather permits. Look up! Is not health at hand, both for soul and body? You have no business with fear. It is good for nothing. We are 'saved by hope'.8 [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-7.
December 5, 1776 Dear Alleck, It is worthwhile to try whether bathing in fresh water would not have the same effect as bathing in salt. In many cases I know it is
8 Rom. 8:24.
Appendix C
not the salt water, but the cold water, which works the cure. Very probably Mrs. Knox's9 complaint might be cured by eating a small crust of bread, or half an ounce of sea-biscuits, every morning fasting. But I will not promise this will take effect, unless she adds to it another remedy—resignation. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-8.
March 19, 1777
Dear Sir, If the returns of your disorder are more and more gentle, there is reason to hope it will be at length totally removed. Very probably, if you live to five or six and twenty, your constitution will take a new turn.10 But it is certainly the design of him that loves you to heal both body and soul. And possibly he delays the healing of the former that the cure of the latter may keep pace with it. As 'it is a great loss to lose an affliction',11 he would not have you lose what you have suffered. I trust it will not be lost, but will be for your profit, that you may be partaker of his holiness. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-9.
May 20, 1777 [...] You have great reason to bless God for the continuance of your health, and expect from him every good thing. That he may fill you all with the spirit of a healthful mind is the prayer of [...]
J. Wesley
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-10.
July 29, 1777 [...] No, God has not forgotten you. You must not say, 'He hideth away his face, and he will never see it.'12 Surely God hath seen it; and he cannot despise the work of his own hands. But he frequently delays giving bodily health till he heals soul and body together. Perhaps this is his design concerning you. But why do not you go to
9 Alexander's widowed mother (name unknown), who died in 1792.
10 In fact, Knox's health improved significantly at age twenty-three.
" Matthew Henry, An Account of the Life and Death of the Rev. Philip Henry (London: Parkhurst & Lawrence, 1698), 59.
12Ps. 10:11.
Appendix C the salt water? If you are short of money, let me have the pleasure of assisting you a little. Meantime I give you a word for your consideration, 'Why art thou so heavy, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? O put thy trust in God! I shall yet give him thanks, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.'1' [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-l 1.
August 29, 1777 [...] I should imagine, if you have a little fair weather in September, it will be worth your while to make a short trial of the saltwater, were it but for a week or two. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-l2.
October 22, 1777 [...] For all this, I have little doubt of seeing you an healthy as well as an happy man. But it is true, nothing less than almighty power can heal either your soul or body. And is not this enough? Have not you reason to rejoice, that 'salvation cometh of the Lord'?141 pray, on whom can you better depend? Who loves you better than him?
Away then with despair! Hope unto the end! [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-l3.
December 2, 1777 [...] Almost every disorder of the bowels, whether it be attended with purging or not, may be recovered by warm lemonade.
An odd circumstance is just now brought to my remembrance. A gentleman who used to be seized with fits in the night [was told],
'Let one wake you every night after you have been asleep about half an hour, keep awake about half an hour longer, and then sleep the rest of the night.' He did so, and the fits came no more.
If you have not tried it already, you might afterwards try what laudanum will do, taking eight or ten drops in any warm liquid for six or seven mornings, fasting. If this also fails, I doubt it would not be worth'1 your while to have a bathing vessel in the house and to
use it twice or thrice a week. You might pour into the cold [water] a 13Ps. 43:5.
14Jon. 2:9.
15I.e., 'I think it might be'.
Appendix C
tea-kettle full of boiling water, lest it should chill you. And perhaps it would be well to put in a pound or two of salt. Then it will be near as good as going into the sea. If your disorder continues still, you must leave Ireland. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-51.
February 26, 1778 [...] With regard to your health, both of body and mind, if you could take one advice it would have a surprising effect. It is this:
'Take no thought for the morrow.'16 You know not how much even your body suffers by this. Today only is yours. Look up, and he will bless you all today. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-14.
April 2, 1778 [nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-15.
June 5, 177817 My Dear Alleck, I advise you:
1. Never sit up later than ten.
2. Never rise later than six.
3. Walk at least an hour daily in the open air; if it rains all day, in the dining room.
4. Choose such diet, both for quantity and quality, as you find sits light upon your stomach. In general, both mutton and beef are easier on digestion than lamb or kid, and yield better nourishment than veal or chicken.
5. Eat as much spinach, cresses, and summer fruits as agrees best with your stomach.
6. Take your little purge once a month till Michaelmas;18 then twice a month till Christmas.
[... proceeds with spiritual advice] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-16.
16 Matt. 6:34.
17 Compare this to JW's initial note of advice three years earlier, June 6, 1775.
18The Feast of St. Michael, Sept. 29.
Appendix C July 11, 1778 My Dear Alleck, It is a natural effect of your bodily weakness, and of the turn of your mind, that you are continually inclined to write bitter things against yourself. Hence you are easily persuaded to believe him that tells you that you 'are void of every degree of saving faith'. No; that is not the case. For salvation is only by faith; and you have received
a degree of salvation. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-17.
August 16, 1778 My Dear Alleck, You have long been under that temptation of despising the day of small things;1'' although indeed, they are not small things which God has done for you already. That you are still too lukewarm is most certain. You have need to stir up the gift of God that is in you.20 And you have need to praise him that his hand is still over you for good, preserving you from presumptuous sins. You ought to be sensible of this, and to be thankful for it, which you may be without 'applauding yourself'.
That you have 'no right to expect the continuance of your health' is undoubtedly true. That is, you cannot claim it from God's justice; you do not merit it at his hands. But is this the measure whereby he deals with his poor creatures? Does he give us no more blessings than we deserve? Does he treat us in all things according to his justice? Not so; but mercy rejoices over judgment!21 Therefore expect from him not what you deserve, but what you want22—health of soul and health of body. Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find!23 Not for your worthiness, but because 'worthv is the Lamb'.24 [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-18.
19 See Zech. 4:10.
20 See 2 Tim. 1:6.
21 See James 2:13.
22I.e., what you 'lack' or 'need'.
23 See Matt. 7:7-8.
24Rev. 5:12.
Appendix C 661
September 27, 1778 My Dear Alleck, I am afraid the late return of your fits was in some measure my fault, because I did not provide you with the remedy which probably would have prevented it. I thought of it indeed, but went no farther when you said your grandmother would send you down to the saltwater. I doubt you have not been there this fine autumn, and now the year is too far spent.
Some time since, I was reading an account of a person in France, whom his confessor absolutely forbade (for such a time) to think of his sins, and ordered him 'to think only of the mercies of God in Christ'.
It had an admirable effect on that desponding man. I know not but it might have the same upon you. Do not look down, but look up. Let not the corruptible body press down the soul! And give no place to the evil one, who would keep you continually poring on the dark side of the prospect. There is good determined concerning you, and not evil.
God has not forsaken you. Thou shalt not die, but live, and declare the loving-kindness of the Lord.25 He has, indeed, chastised and corrected you, but he hath not given you over to death. But you must not coop yourself up in the house. You must be in the open air as much as possible; nay, and you should be on horseback as often as you can. But just now a thing comes into my mind which may concern you. A few days after I left you, one of our brethren told me, 'I was troubled with fits from my infancy. I had all possible advice, but in vain. So that I despaired of help. But one morning I dreamed a person came and told me "Go down to the bridge, and take this herb (which he showed me) and take a large glassful of the juice of it every morning".' He did so and was totally cured. Who knows but it may have the same effect upon you? The herb was pellitory of the wall. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-19.
October 28, 1778 [...] The directing us to this or that means is as much an answer to prayer as if the cure was immediately wrought. But it will be a double blessing if you give yourself up to the Great Physician, that he may heal soul and body together. And unquestionably this is his design. He wants to give you and my dear Mrs. Knox both inward and outward health. And why not now? Surely all things are ready!
Believe, and receive the blessing.
25 SeePs. 118:17.
Appendix C There can be no doubt but your bodily disorder greatly affects your mind. And it will affect you more if ever you are costive, which therefore you should take care to prevent, and that by diet rather than physic—by boiled, baked, or roasted apples in particular.
Meantime you should be out every fair day on horseback or on foot.
Nothing will help without air and exercise.
I really think if you should live till spring, and be able to remove to England, you would find a surprising change for the better. You would be as it were in a new world. The spirit of the people would revive your spirits, in a manner you have not known before. [...]
Source', holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-20.
December 20, 1778 Dear Alleck,
It is beyond doubt that the scurvy is one part, if not the chief part, of your disorder. And I do not know that you can take a better method to remove it than that which you now take. I do not want that eruption to strike in. Probably the pellitory strikes it out. And it is not unlikely it may gradually die away, without any particular application.
The great lesson you have to learn at present is to take no thought for the morrow.26 God gives you tolerable health today. The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. [...]
Source', holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-21.
January 25, 1779 [...] You must take care always to keep the body open with one gentle purgative or another, and use all the exercise you can. Every fair day you should ride. Very probably when you find peace with God your bodily disease will be healed. And who knows how soon? [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-22.
June 4, 1779 [...] Steadily attend to that business whereto you are called by the providence of God, and you need not doubt he will give you such a measure of bodily health as is most expedient for you. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-23.
26 See Matt. 6:34.
Appendix C
July 31, 1779 [...] If you had firm and constant health, I do not see how you could have been saved. You would have been so admired, caressed, and applauded by your well-meaning relations, and perhaps by others, that it would have been next to impossible for you to have escaped the depths of pride and the height of vanity. But God was merciful to you, and sent this affliction to humble and prove you, and show you what was in your heart. In the meantime nothing is more sure than that all these things will work together for some good. [...]
I think if you had any notice of it, electrifying Would prevent a fit.
And if you was daily electrified for a month, it would remove the whole disorder. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-24.
December 23, 1779 Dear Alleck, The whole account of yourself which you still give convinces me more and more of what I have once and again observed concerning the nature of your disorder. It is undeniable 1) that you have a bodily complaint. Your nerves are greatly disordered; and although it is only now and then that this rises so high as to occasion a fit, yet it has a constant influence upon you so as to cause a dejection of spirits. This dejection is no more imputed to you as a sin than the flowing of the blood in your veins. 2) Although I will not say you have no faith, yet it is certain your faith is small; and you are fearful, because you are of little faith. This is another source of your uneasiness. 3) You want to have the love of God fully shed abroad in your heart. You have only now and then a little touch of thankfulness, a small spark of that divine fire. And hence anger, or at least fretfulness and peevishness, more or less, will naturally arise. Add to these
4) the main cause, diabolical agency. Satan will surely take occasion, from the situation you are in, to inject a thousand thoughts; and will then accuse you for them. But he, not you, shall answer for them to God. God is on your side. He knows whereof you are made, and Jesus careth for you. He keeps you and my dear Mrs. Knox as the apple of an eye. His Spirit helps your infirmities. He is purifying you in that furnace; and when you have been tried, you shall come forth as gold. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-25.
Appendix C January 28, 1780 Dear Alleck, It will certainly be worth your while to make a trial of that mineral water. It is highly probable God will make it a means of lessening, if not removing, your bodily disorder. That this is in a considerable degree scorbutic I cannot make any question, as one almost constant symptom of the scurvy is a great depression of the spirits. Another is eruptions, sometimes appearing then disappearing again. And mineral waters have frequently availed in these cases (as Dr. Rutty27 often observed) after all other means prescribed by the most skillful physicians had been tried in vain. [...]
And I cannot advise you in the meantime to shut yourself up at home. It is neither good for your body nor your mind. You cannot possibly have bodily health without daily exercise in the open air; and you have no reason to expect the spirit of an healthful mind unless you use the means that God has ordained. You well know faith cometh by hearing.281 should therefore advise you to lose no opportunity of hearing, and trust God with the event. You are not likely to be in a more uncomfortable state than you are already. And which is the greater evil of the two, even supposing the worst? Certainly your having two fits is a less evil than your losing fifty precious opportunities. O break through that fear, which is a mere snare of the devil. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-26.
November 18, 1780 [...] As you found some relief by that easing of your stomach, this reminds me of an odd case which occurred many years ago.
Dr. Middleton29 of Bristol advised my housekeeper in a desperate disorder to take a few grains of ipecacuanha every Saturday morning. In four weeks she was perfecdy cured. And her disorder never returned. I really think it will be worth your while to make the experiment.
As I have frequently observed to you, I am still persuaded it is chiefly your body which presses down your soul; and if it please
God to heal your body, I doubt not your mind will be far easier. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-27.
''John Rutty (1697-1775), a distinguished Quaker physician in Dublin.
28 See Rom. 10:17.
29 John Middleton (c. 1680-1760), of Bristol.
Appendix C 665
December 23, 1780 [nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-28.
September 3, 1781
[nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-29.
July 30, 1782
[...] There is no doubt but there is a natural disorder in your body which (for want of better language) we call weakness of nerves. And there is a disorder in your mind which is surely natural, namely unbelief. But without question there is something preternatural too, for Satan knows whereof you are made and will not fail to press every advantage which bodily weakness gives him. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-30.
October 22, 1782 [...] The epidemic distemper has had the same effect on many in various parts of England, especially where the Peruvian bark has been given in any considerable quantity. This has turned the fever in a few days or weeks into a true pulmonary consumption. And I do not recollect any instance in which a consumption caused by the bark has been cured. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-31.
December 2, 1782 [on death of Knox's sister Sarah; otherwise nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-32.
February 10, 1783 [on building a new preaching house; nothing specifically health-
related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-33.
Appendix C April 5, 1783 [...] Enjoy your present health, and expect the continuance of it.
And is not this a token of better things at hand? Peace be with all your spirits! [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-34.
April 23, 1783 [...] You have no business to take thought for the morrow about sickness or health, or anything else. It is your part to make the best of today. What if you took a journey with Mr. [Thomas] Abraham?
It would be good both for your soul and body. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-35.
May 3, 1783 My Dear Alleck, Since I came to Ireland my health and strength are more fully restored than they have been for several months. And my journey will undoubtedly be attended with another good consequence.
My friends in England will not be under such dreadful apprehensions if I should have to take another journey to Ireland. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-36.
December 7, 1783 [nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-37.
February 7, 1784 [...] As to the love of praise, I do not doubt but you have much more of it than you want. And I am persuaded the Great Physician shows you the disease on purpose that he may cure it. But yet, I apprehend you a little mistaken. You blame yourself where no blame is. 'To be pleased with the approbation of our fellow creatures' is no part of corrupt nature. It belongs to our pure nature; and to cherish it in a degree is a duty, and not a sin. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-38.
Appendix C
March 18, 1784 [...] The twenty days illness which I had in August last left me much [better] than it found me. All my illnesses tend to improve my health, but none so much as my fever in the north of Ireland.
That gave me quite a new constitution, so that since that time I have almost forgot what weariness means. I am never tired either of my work, or in my work, either in speaking or travelling. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-39.
September 26, 1784 [nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-40.
March 19, 1785
[nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-41.
May 6, 1785
[nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-42.
June 8, 1785
[...] You say: 'The reason why I do not go out is this, I am afraid of falling in the street. And I do not attend the church or the preaching-house for fear I should fall down there and disturb the congregation.'
This is the clear state of the case. The question is, then, is this reason sufficient, or is it not?
I am fully persuaded it is not. For first, you are by no means sure that you shall fall down in the church or in the congregation. You have great reason to hope you shall not. Although I should not wonder if your fits were now both more frequent and more severe than they are.
But secondly, Does not common sense teach us e malis minimum?30
Now I insist upon it that your falling in the street or the congregation once every month is a less evil than the shutting yourself up. So that were it pronounced by a voice from heaven, 'Either shut thyself
30'Out of evils, [choose] the least.'
Appendix C up, or endure this shame once a month, or even once a week; take thy choice' it would be wisest to choose the latter, for it is incomparably the less evil of the two.
It is indisputably plain to every impartial person that, by thus cooping yourself up, you hurt your body. By want of air and exercise you weaken it continually. I wonder you have not fits every day.
And you hurt your soul by neglecting the ordinances of God, w hich you have no authority to do unless you was sick in bed. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-43.
July 10, 1785 [...] What I advise you to is this: every fair day walk to, if not round, the churchyard. When you are a little hardened by this, you may venture at a convenient opportunity (suppose on a Sunday morning) to attend the public worship. Till you do I cannot say you are in God's way, and therefore I am not sure you will find his blessing. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-44.
December 8, 1785 Dear Alleck, I do not believe that any fistula is incurable, even without any incision at all. I suppose the late king [George II] was near seventy w hen he told his physicians, 'I w ill not be cut. Either cure me without cutting, or I will die.' They did then effect a perfect cure, without any cutting at all. And several years since a young man came to me, at the return from one of my journeys, and told me he had used Sir Kenelm
Digby's remedy, set down in the Primitive Physic,31 and that it had perfectly cured his fistula in six weeks time. When I mentioned that to Dr. Crommelin32 (whom I would trust beyond any other physician in Ireland), he told me, 'Sir, I have myself cured several fistulas by the same medicine. Only I prescribe but half the quantity.'
[...] I incline to think, your late illness will prevent your fits, by driving the humour the other way. [...]
Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-45.
31JW was referring to the receipt for treating a fistula that included powdered copperas; Digby popularized this as 'the powder of sympathy' (see above, Primitive
Physic, §112, remedy 4).
32 Apparently Alexander Crommelin (namesake of his father [1670-1737]), who had studied at Lisburn and Edinburgh.
Appendix C
April 23, 1787 [on business matter; nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-46.
May 16, 1787
[on business matter; nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-47.
April 11, 1789
[on upcoming visit; nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-48.
June 4, 1789 [on a lay preacher; nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-49.
July 26, 1790 [condolences on death of Knox's brother; nothing specifically health-related] Source: holograph; Upper Room Museum, L-50.
II. Elizabeth Ritchie Letters to John Wesley
In order to provide medical advice through letters, Wesley needed to know the health challenges of his correspondents. Thus he made requests like: 'I beg, if you love me, you will send me a minute account how you are both in body and mind.'33 It is hard to know how many of Wesley's correspondents complied with such requests because much of his in-correspondence, particularly for the later decades of his life, survives only as published in the Arminian Magazine. From the few cases where the full text of a letter survives to compare with the version in the Arminian Magazine, it is clear that Wesley almost always elided this personal information. As such, the best sources for letters describing health challenges to Wesley are among the surviving papers of his correspondents, since some kept record copies of the letters they sent to him.
The specific request for 'a minute account' quoted above was addressed to Elizabeth Ritchie (1754-1835), daughter of a surgeon/
33JW to Elizabeth Ritchie, Jan. 17, 1775 (vol. 29 in this edn.).
Appendix C apothecary in Otley, Yorkshire. Ritchie became active in the Methodist society in Otley and, starting in May 1774, one of Wesley's regular correspondents. Among items in the Frank Baker Collection of Wesleyana in The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University is a set of Ritchie's surviving papers (Box CO 6). These include record copies of many of her letters to Wesley. Most of these have not been published previously. The few that Wesley included in the Arminian Magazine have sections elided. These letters will be transcribed in their entirety in The Wesley Works Editorial Project website section devoted to John Wesley's In-Correspondence. However, we present below (with permission of Duke University) excerpted sections of letters where Ritchie comments on her health, or that of her father or friends, from 1774 through 1780.
August 19, 1774 Revered and Dear Sir, I am sorry I have ever given you cause to complain of me.34 My not speaking to you about my health was chiefly owing to my want of thought at the time I was with you. '" The wants and infirmities my outward man often feels are almost forgotten w'hile my spirit seems to be wholly seeking the things which are above. It is true I have a feeble body, but this at times is so strengthened that I am enabled to do things without feeling any present disadvantage, which others who appear to be far stronger seem unable to do. Hitherto I have used very few means, and had little advice from anyone, being willing if my father or any other thought anything necessary to use it. But [I] seldom sought for aught, desiring to give both soul and body to him who I knew' could do in all things as he saw best for me.
But if the Lord hath inclined your heart, dear sir, to care not only for spiritual health but also for my natural strength, I am willing to tell you all I can, and will endeavour to use the means you prescribe.
It is near three years since I caught cold at an improper time, which in a short space brought on a consumptive complaint. All my friends thought me near gone, but the Lord unexpectedly raised me up again. Since that time my constitution has never been strong.
34JW's complaint about Ritchie not mentioning her health challenges was likely in his letter to her ol July 31, 1774. This letter is known only through an excerpt that Joseph Benson included in his edition of JW's Works, and Benson typically excluded such personal comments.
35 JW had been at Ritchie's home in May 1774.
Appendix C
But for some time lately I have no cough, no shortness of breath; this seems entirely gone. But [I] have in the general a continued lax [i.e., diarrhoea], often much pain in my bowels. Sometimes I have the headache. But being bled in the foot about eight weeks since, have since that time been rather better in my head. But for some weeks have had a breaking out, especially about my elbow and knees. It is of the scurvy kind—a white scruff peels off without either itching or soreness. Since this broke out I have been better of myself. It has hindered me bathing (my father not thinking it proper for me to bathe while thus broke out), which used to be of great service to me and strengthened me much. The scurvy some of my friends thought proceeded from the poorness of my blood, and advised me to live better. But my blood was not at all thin nor bad, though rather inclined to the sizy [i.e., thick and viscous]. I seldom eat flesh meat, though very few things disagree with me and my appetite in the general is such as gives me to feel I eat to live. Thus, sir, I have endeavoured to tell you how I am, as near as I can. I hope you will bear with my prolixity. It is a subject I am unaccustomed to write on. But you, I know, will excuse me. [...]
October 18, 1774 [...] I have used lemons lately, but could not get oranges—the old ones being sold off and the new ones not come. As soon I can get them, [I] shall endeavour to follow your directions. I think I am rather better of all the complaints I last mentioned, though none of them are quite removed. I have lately been permitted to feel the effects of the fall by a violent toothache. The Lord gave me strength equal unto my day. I felt this was needful to exercise my patience. At present, the violence of my pain is removed, but I have still a bad cold, and still pain in my face. I know when the end for which my Lord has permitted this light affliction is accomplished, it will be removed. [...]
January 10, 1775
[...] Last Saturday I was taken very ill, and about 10:00 in the forenoon went to bed. My complaint seemed a violent colic. They endeavoured to make me warm by applying hot flannels, and giving me tincture of rhubarb and senna mint, which after some time had the desired effect. Toward evening it went off, and I still continue better. The Lord kept me comfortable in my soul while exercised with violent pains. [...]
Appendix C March 14, 1775 [...] Since I last wrote, my health has been much as usual. I do not yet feel much difference, but am through mercy able to do all the providence of God calls me to. Exercise I feel exceeding good, and think the using more of this than I often can at home has been one means in the hand of God for my good. The electrifying I feel very useful, but have not had it in my power to use it much. My brother has ordered a machine, but we have not got it yet. [...]
February 18, 1777
[...] As to my health, it has been much better this last winter than for some time past. The cause has been removed. Sometimes
I have still pain in my side and breast, accompanied with shortness of breath. But upon the whole I am much better than I used to be, and sometimes I think it is likely the Lord may prolong my days to a distant period. [...]
August 1, 1777 [...] As to my own health, the pain in my breast and side is often very violent but not so constant as used to be. My cough is better, but my spitting of blood is again returned, and the discharge larger than it used to be. My fever and night sweats are abated, and my strength considerably more than when I saw you. I can now bear to ride five or six miles on horseback at a time without much weariness. And as change of air is thought proper for me, [I] intend going to Park Gate next week; and if I continue as I am after having been there a little, to Cross Hall. [...]
September 1, 1777
[...] Many of the questions you asked were almost answered in my last. But as I love to show my readiness to comply with everything you propose, excuse me if I should write the same thing over again. To what outward means my recovery may be attributed, I dare not say. A decoction of the bark I constantly took, three times a day. The tar pills and buttermilk, with all the exercise I could bear, and much summer fruit, has also been strictly adhered to. But indeed, my dear sir, though these may have been all useful in their place, I think the prayer of faith has prevailed with my gracious
Lord to continue me in a state of trial yet a little longer. And sure the life he has so miraculously spared will be all devoted to him to whom my more than all is due.
Appendix C
I think my disorder took a turn the Thursday night you was at Otley. In the family you prayed in faith and God, even our God, inclined his gracious ear. For about a fortnight I seemed at a stand
(but now think I was a little recovering though it was so slowly I could then hardly discern it). But after then I began to gain my strength amazingly, and in about a month many of my complains greatly declined. And from that time to this my Lord has been gently restoring my decayed frame. And I am now to all appearances not far from what I used to be, though in many respects I still feel weaker than I used to be before this visitation. I still continue to take the bark medicine and live chiefly on buttermilk. The doctors are quite surprised with me, and Mr. [William] Hey says he never thought to see me thus—though he yet will not pronounce me out of danger. My shortness of breath and cough are greatly better, and I now spit very little; sometimes it is a little blood. My lax [i.e., diarrhoea] continues as bad as ever, and sometimes rather worse. Since
I came here, dear Miss [Mary] Bosanquet has wished me to resume the pills, which I had left taking. And when my fever is coming on I take a little of the saline mixture. [...]
September 25, 1778 [...] My health is better than when you were here. I have been three weeks in the north, chiefly on the edge of a cold moor. It has agreed with me well. [...]
January 30, 1779 [...] I bless God, my health is greatly restored. When I have much exercise of any kind I think my strength is not equal to what it was formerly. And Mr. [William] Hey tells me he thinks it would be better for me to eat animal food once a day, as the want of strength may in a great measure proceed from my diet. [...]
June 30,1779 [...] My dear father's health has been but very indifferent since you was in Yorkshire; so that, contrary to what I had intended, I have been at home or only at Park Gate ever since. In the daytime he is much as usual. But if he go[es] to bed before one or two [ojclock, [he] is generally forced to rise, else to all appearance he would be suffocated.
Soon after he is in an upright posture, he seldom fails to find relief.
Of late we generally sit up with him till past the time these fits come on, and then he sometimes rests pretty well the rest of the night.
Appendix C Last week I heard but a very poor account from Cross Hall. Dear sister [Mary] Bosanquet had had for some time what Mr. [William]
Hey (who attended her) calls an inflammation on her lungs. At the first he apprehended no danger, but only thought her complaint
5 would prove tedious. Lately he begged she would call a physician and told her he feared her disorder would terminate in a consumption. She told him she was satisfied with his judgment and begged he would proceed with her as he thought proper. He immediately blistered her side, and if that does not answer the end designed [he]
10 intends to fix a seton there.
Sister Tripp is also much worse and had come to a resolution to have the cancer cut out of her breast. But when Mr. Hey examined it, in order to prepare for the operation, [he] was much surprised to find it so far spread (for by the account she had all along given him,
15 he thought it either rather better or at least at a stand) and seemed to think, from many symptoms, the whole mass of blood so affected that it was likely to answer no material end. A young woman near
Leeds farther gone than Nancy was cured by using hemlock poultices and drinking a decoction of the inner rind of elm bark, so 20 that (though Mr. Hey would if she chose it still cut her breast) she prefers trying these things at least for some time. [...]
APPENDIX D
THE PRIMITIVE PHYSIC CONTROVERSY
(Letters, Poems, and Reviews from December 1775 'Antidote' [#1], 'To the Rev. John Wesley' (Dec. 25, 1775) 677-78
JW's reply to 'Antidote' (Dec. 28, 1775) 678-79 through January 1777) 'Fly-Flap', 'To the Rev. Mr. Wesley' (Jan. 1, 1776) 679
'Qvis', 'To the Rev. Mr. Wesley' Gan. 2, 1776) 680-82 'A Friend to Truth', 'Pro bono Publico' Qan. 2, 1776) 682-83
'Antidote' [#2], 'To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley' (c. Jan. 6, 1776) 683 'XXX', 'To the Printer of the Gazetteer' (c. Jan. 20, 1776) 684-85
'Antidote' [#1], 'To the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.'
(c.Jan. 23, 1776) 685-87 JW to the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post (c. Jan. 23, 1776) 687-89
JW's reply to 'Antidote', 'XXX', etc. (c. Jan. 26, 1776) 690-91 (Feb.-Apr. 1776) 691-92 Commendation of Hawes's Examination of. . . 'Primitive
Publication of Hawes's Examination of. . . 'Primitive Physic'
Physic' (May 11, 1776) ' 692-93 Public Debate on Hawes's Examination of. . . 'Primitive
Physic' (May 17, 1776) 693-94 Reviews of William Hawes's Examination of. . . 'Primitive
Critical Review 41 (Apr. 1776) 694 Gentlemans Magazine 46 (May 1776) 694-96 London Review Of English And Foreign Literature 3
(May 1776) 697-98 Monthly Review 54 (May 1776): 419-20 698-700 Physic'
Westminster Magazine (May 1776): 419—20 700—02 London Chronicle (May 25—28, 1776) 702—06
London Magazine 45 GUE 1776) 706-10 'Public Applause', 'To Mr. Hawes, Author of'An Examination ...' (c. June 5, 1776) 710-12
'Anti-Fanaticus', 'To Mr. Hawes, on his Examination ... ' Quly 1776) 712-13
(July 20, 1776) 713 William Hawes, 'To Mr. John Wesley' (July 24, 1776) 714 John Wesley [reply to Hawes] (July 29, 1776) 714-18
Appendix D John Wesley, 'To Mr. Hawes, Apothecary and Critic'
(Aug. 6, 1776) ' ' 719-22 'A Methodist', To Editor of the London Review 'Talus', 'To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley' (c. Aug. 1, 1776) 718-19
William Hawes [reply to Wesley's letter of July 271 (Aug. 16, 1776) 723 'Squib', 'For the Gazetteer' (Aug. 7, 1776) 723-24
'Detester of Hypocrisy', To That Fanatical. . . Mr. Wesley (c. Sept. 1776) ' ' 724-28 William Hawes, 'To the Public' (c. Jan. 1, 1777) 728-29
Appendix D 677
From 'Antidote' [#1] December 25, 1775 Reverend Sir, Happening to look into your pamphlet called Primitive Physic, one of the first remedies that I cast my eye upon was, 'To one poisoned, give one or two drams of distilled verdigris.'1 Everyone who has the least acquaintance with the powers of medicine will, I believe, be equally startled with myself at reading such a prescription.
I could scarce believe my eyesight for some time, nor can at present by any means account for the ignorance and presumption of a man who deals out as an antidote one of the most active poisons in nature in such an enormous dose, and this in such an undetermined quantity as if the exact dose were immaterial.
But not to prejudice the reader by my own opinion, who have no connection with nor much knowledge of any branch of medicine, let us see what Dr. Lewis says concerning verdigris.
Verdigris (says he) is rarely or never given internally. Some recommend it indeed in the dose of a grain or two, as an emetic, which operates almost as soon as received into the stomach, and which may therefore be of use where poisonous substances have been taken, to procure their immediate rejection. It appears, however, highly imprudent to have recourse on such occasions to a remedy in itself so dangerous and so virulent; and more especially as a speedy evacuation may be obtained by means of substances that are not only innocent, but at the same time weaken the force of the poison, by diluting and obtunding it—as warm water, milk, oils.2
Thus you see, sir, Dr. Lewis calls the giving of verdigris, even in the one hundred and twentieth part of your dose, highly imprudent.
Nay, it is very probable that your dose of two drams would effectually poison 20 or 30 people, or operate very sensibly on every man, woman, and child in one of your largest congregations. Far be it from me to suppose that you had any bad design in publishing this prescription. To the honour of our country, wilful poisoning is but rare, and antidotes would be seldom wanted, were it not that, during every winter, there are many of the common people who are poisoned, as it is called, by eating mussels.3
1 See §177, receipt #1 in this edn.
2 William Lewis, An Experimental History of the Materia Medica (London: Baldwin, 1761), 19.
3Orig., here and in next paragraph, 'muscles'.
Appendix D Your book, sir, which I have before me, is the 16th edition; so that it is probable near twenty thousand have been sold and dispersed amongst people of inferior rank. Give me leave to put a case, which, if it has not already happened, is extremely likely to happen every day. A person is poisoned by eating mussels; get Mr. Wesley's book and see what he recommends; the first remedy for one poisoned is one or two drams of distilled verdigris,4 as it is an antidote, and recommended by him, be sure to get enough of it; if, or rather when, the patient dies, his death is laid to the mussels, and under the sanction of your name, verdigris is given again when the same occasion offers.
I leave it to your own judgment, to find out by what method you can recall these firebrands of death that you have scattered so plentifully through the land. But I hope you will be speedy and not wait for the interposition of the censors of the College of Physicians, who, as guardians of the public health, have a right to and I doubt not will, if necessary, interfere in a case which calls so loudly for immediate redress. Antidote
Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and Neva Daily Advertiser (Dec. 25, 1775), p. 1; London Chronicle, 38 (Dec. 23-26, 1775), p. 612.
John Wesley's reply to Antidote [#1]
To the Printer of the Gazetteer December 28, 1775 Between twenty and thirty editions of the Primitive Physic (or, a rational and easy method of curing most diseases) have been published either in England or Ireland. In one or more of these editions stand these words: 'Give one or more drams of distilled verdigris'.5
I thank the gentleman who takes notice of this, though he might have done it in a more obliging manner.
Could he possibly have been ignorant (had he not been willingly so) that this is a mere blunder of the printer? That I wrote 'grains', not 'drams'? However, it is highly proper to advertise the public of 4 Note provided in original: 'Distilled verdigris is full as acrid as the common sort.'
5 See §177, receipt #1 in this edn.
Appendix D 679
this; and I beg every one that has the book would take the trouble of altering that word with his pen.
Yours, etc.
J. Wesley
Source: published transcriptions; The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 1, 1776), 2; Lloyd's Evening Post (Dec. 29, 1775 — Jan.
From 'Fly-Flap'
January 1, 1776 To the Rev. Mr. Wesley, Instead of making such an apology as the public had a right to expect, from the nature and extreme danger of the blunder contained in your Primitive Physic relative to taking so destructive a quantity of distilled verdigris in the case of poison, I cannot help considering your answer as a most crafty piece of evasion and only worthy of an unfeeling quack, regardless of and sporting with the health and lives of his fellow creatures.
In the true style of such a person, you begin your answer by mentioning what you call your Primitive Physic's having passed through between twenty and thirty editions. Had you not been lost to shame, as well as humanity, on this occasion, it must have occurred to you that this circumstance must be an exaggeration of your fault, as a book, which has been greedily bought by the ignorant in the nature and principles of medicine for whom it is declaredly intended, ought to have been corrected with the utmost care. But it seems as if you designed to balance the number of its editions in exultation, against the most evident and most dreadful consequences.
The weak attempt to throw blame upon the printer is as uncandid as it appears improbable. The words 'drams' and 'grains', are so unlike that it is almost impossible to mistake the one for the other.
At least, it argues an unpardonable carelessness to have suffered so dangerous an error to have appeared not only in one but, as yourself owns, perhaps in more, which probably means in most of the editions. However, it is a debt required of you by the public, to point out that edition of your work which may be used without the hazard of losing their lives, by following yours or your printer's prescriptions.
Yours, etc., Fly-Flap
Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 4, 1776), p. 2.
Appendix D From 'Civis'
Soho [London] January 2, 1776 To the Rev. Mr. Wesley, When an honest man is convinced of his error, he immediately repairs it by an ingenuous confession. But if it has been attended with consequences dangerous to society, he will do more; he will earnestly endeavour by all possible means to amend the past, or at least to prevent the like consequences in the future; and the integrity of his heart will plead strongly in his favour. Had you, reverend sir, acted thus discreetly in a recent instance, you would have had a claim to the indulgence of the public. But the despicable apology you have had the effrontery to offer in print renders you totally inexcusable in the mind of every unprejudiced person.
A writer in this paper of the 25th of last month has detected an error of the most pernicious tendency in your Primitive Physic. You begin your apology by telling us that between twenty and thirty editions have been published in England and Ireland. What has Ireland to do with this matter, unless it be to make us conclude that your work has done havoc in other countries besides this? Those numerous editions of which you boast ought to have been so many motives to care and circumspection. Is it not the constant practice of every writer (the most slovenly excepted) to revise each sheet before it is committed to the press? Was it not a duty highly incumbent upon you sir, in return for the very generous encouragement you have met with from the public, to examine every page with a watchful eye, and to correct with the most scrupulous caution any error therein before it was printed? Or, when you had not done so, one would think any regard for the safety of your fellow-creatures would have induced you to take a review of the pamphlet, when finished, in order to discover whether any material error had crept in, and in such case to print a fresh leaf, or an erratum at least with every copy. But was your thirst of gain too ardent to suffer a moment's delay? Or did more important avocations (political ones perhaps) render you totally forgetful of your duty in this particular?
With an air of conscious dignity you say, 'The gentleman might have taken notice of this in a more obliging manner.' Undoubtedly, an uncommon degree of respect is due to the reverend Mr. Wesley, even when publishing a book containing a prescription of poison by way of antidote\ I truly declare that I am entirely a stranger to the writer who has detected that egregious blunder. In my humble
Appendix D
opinion, he has delivered his sentiments like a man of sense and a gentleman; and what is more, like a man who has a due concern for the welfare of society—in which point you, reverend sir, appear miserably defective!
'Could he possibly have been ignorant (had he not been willingly so), that this is a mere blunder of the printer?' Nothing like a good assurance; hie mums aheneus esto.b But how comes it, worthy sir, that you could possibly have been ignorant of this so long? The printer's
blunder cannot save you credit, for I believe every impartial reader will agree with me that had not the writer, who so unfortunately galls you, detected this fatal prescription, it would have remained undiscovered by you.
But supposing, as you say, that person to have been willingly ignorant of the printer's blunder, could your numerous readers have been aware of it, especially the lower, uninformed classes of people, who have purchased your book? I will appeal to your own congregations. I will venture to say there is not one person in fifty who would not place an unlimited confidence in a recipe that has the sanction of your name. And do you weakly imagine that your caution, inserted in a few newspapers of a day, will be sufficient to counteract the poisonous prescription in your books dispersed over the three kingdoms? How will you answer it to your own conscience? How will you answer it to your country?
I have the 16th edition of your book now before me (printed in London) in w hich I observe a postscript dated indeed so long ago as 1755, but which you have thought proper to subjoin to the preface in this edition. Your postscript begins thus: 'It was a great surprize to the editor of the following collection that there was so swift and large a demand for it. This encouraged him carefully to revise the whole, with several alterations, which it is hoped may make it of greater use to those who love common sense and common honesty.'6 7
Now sir, who would not have reason to conclude from hence that this last edition had undergone the same careful revisal as any former one? Else to what purpose, I ask, is that paragraph made to strike the reader's eye in the name of common sense and common honesty!
I am persuaded you cannot answer these plain truths to the satisfaction of the public, and in charity I will believe not to your own. You preach repentance to others; be penitent yourself. Make, if possible, amends for the mischief your book has occasioned, by
6 Horace, Epistles, I.i.60; 'let this be your brazen wall of defense'.
7 See Primitive Physic, Postscript [I] above.
Appendix D using all the means in your power to prevent the like mischief in future. Need I point out to you these means?
You will immediately advertise an erratum, not once, but repeatedly from time to time, in the several London papers and in all the country papers throughout the kingdom, as well as in those of Scotland and Ireland. You will give particular charge to your deacons and other superintendents of every one of your congregations to make known this caution to all your people. You will suppress the sale of your pamphlet in its present state, and without further delay apply yourself to a careful, diligent revisal of the whole. Believe me, there is more than one blunder to be found in it. But future animadversion, I hope, will be precluded.
I now take my leave of you, reverend sir, with a word of advice. If ever hereafter you should give occasion to be set right in any matter that concerns the public, assume less importance. Have a more humble opinion of yourself, and less indifference when the life of your neighbour is in danger.
Civis Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 4, 1776), pp. 1-2.
From 'A Friend to Truth'
January 2, 1776
Pro bo no publico8 One drachm of 'distilled verdigris'', according to an experienced apothecary, contains sixty grains. And according to the Rev. Mr.
John Wesley's letter or card in the Gazetteer of the first instant,
'one or more' editions of his pamphlet on that subject, through the 'blunder of his printer', have been published containing a confession of the fatal blunder! This the reverend gentleman, with his usual levity, treats so lightly as only to thank his corrector, or the gentleman that took notice of it, without humanely or candidly expressing any sorrow for this sad blunder, or marking how many more than one edition contains this fatal mistake. But was it not the blunder or fault of the editor or publisher, as well as of the printer, who should surely have revised and corrected the press, and not let so fatal a blunder or mistake go forth to the public?
8'For the public good.1
Appendix D
How many thousands may have fallen by it is not easily estimated.
But [it] is hoped this, with other fatal blunders and mistakes in politics, will at last teach this reverend Methodist gentleman, scholar,
Christian, physician, and politician, to be more serious, and remember in his next Calm Address9 the adage of die sutor ultra, crepidam f that
One science only will one genius fit, So vast is human knowledge, so narrow human wit.* 11
He will therefore for the future to his pulpit and text, as the cobbler should to his stall and last,12 lest by his pamphlets, sermons, and prescriptions he brings his other foot and 'grey hair, with sorrow to the grave'.13
A Friend to Truth
Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 13, 1776), p. 2.
From 'Antidote' [#2]14
c. January 8, 1776 To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, Being possessed of the eighth edition of your Primitive Physic, printed in 1759, I looked for your famous poisonous recipe, and there it stands, sure enough, though the title page declares that this edition is corrected, and the postscript that you have been encouraged carefully to revise it. Notwithstanding, therefore, your correctness and care, I am afraid that the recipe, instead of having escaped in one or more editions, as you artfully insinuate, stands unmolested in more than twenty editions. This you are better convinced of than disposed to acknowledge.
Antidote Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser Gan. 10, 1776), p. 2.
'Referring to JW's Calm, Address to Our American Colonies (1775).
10 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, xxxv.81; 'shoemaker, stick to your shoes'.
11 Alexander Pope, 'Essay on Criticism', 11. 60-61.
12The form used in making shoes.
13 Gen. 42:38.
14 In a letter on January 25, the original 'Antidote' indicated that this letter was not from him.
684 Appendix D
From 'XXX' c. January 20, 1776 I find that Mr. Wesley is too proud, too self-sufficient, and too much wrapped up in his present supposed state of self-importance to vouchsafe either Mr. Caleb Evans, or any other correspondent, anything in the shape of an answer.
I cannot help thinking that he hath not yet pleaded the true and genuine apology for his blundering prescription of distilled verdigris. If he had spoke out, he would have owned, 'that not being an adept in weights and measures, he really mistook a dram for a grain'.
Every person who has only passed the threshold of arithmetic knows the difference between averdupoize and troy weights. And everybody knows that medicines are weighed by troy weights. But I have often thought that many arithmetical books are herein very faulty; that in hasty arrangement of such articles as are weighed by troy weight in general, you find medicines, without the least hint, till two or three pages forward, that apothecary's troy is a particular specific kind of troy weight, different in the intermediate divisions from troy weight in genere. Thus it often happens that people who
(according to a favourite misapplication of a text in scripture) generally 'run as they read',15 and fling books aside as soon as they fancy themselves possessed of what they were prepossessed in favour of before, are perpetually falling into great errors. Mr. Wesley's whole progress in life stands as a proof that he is one of that species of readers. In that mode he has read the Scriptures, and in that mode (it is probable) doth he read every book, from the Pentateuch of Moses down to [Edmund] Wingate's Arithmetic.
I have often met with many persons (who either never did know, or have forgot what they once knew) who have insisted in conversation that apothecary's weights were exactly the same with common troy weights. But being reminded that they never heard the term
'penny weight' used in medicine, nor the two terms 'scruple' and 'drachm' (or 'dram') in common troy, they will immediately correct themselves and reply that the terms are indeed different, but in quantity and effect it is the same thing whether you say 'ounce',
'penny weight', and 'grain', as the common troy; or 'ounce', 'scruple', and 'dram', as the apothecary's troy. And here, unless they are so lucky as to be corrected again, it is odds but they go off, full gallop, with the idea that a scruple is the 20th part of an ounce, and a dram the 24th part of a scruple. And if this had been the case, Mr.
15 Cf. Hab. 2:2.
Appendix D
Wesley's dram of distilled verdigris would have been only equal to a grain, and might have been innocent. But every intelligent person knows that the apothecary's ounce is first divided into 8 drams, each dram subdivided into three scruples, and each scruple into 20 grains', and that the term 'grain' is common to both modes, and in both is the 480th part of an ounce.
If Mr. Wesley has a desire that the world should not estimate his abilities so lightly as to conceive him capable of a mistake of that nature, I think he would do well, and it is incumbent on him, to answer the two following queries:
First, can he name to us any one edition of his book (published previously to the detection of this error in the Gazetteer) where the supposed misprinting of 'dram' for 'grain' stands corrected?
Second, is it corrected in the body of the work, as it ought to be?
Or is it only slightly referred to in the errata, with a ' Vide page ditto,
line ditto, pro dram, lege grain'?
I hope he will be able to answer both these queries in the affirmative, especially the last. For (as Mr. Wesley knows very well) few people ever look in the errata, unless they happen to be gravelled in the construction of some confused sentence; and it would be very hard upon Mr. Wesley's patient readers to have so many chances against their lives as (according to the following calculation) they would stand subject to: First, twenty to one, that they never cast an eye upon the errata; and next, forty to one, that they do not understand a syllable of Latin.
I am, sir, etc., XXX Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 24, 1776), pp. 1-2.
From 'Antidote' [#1] c. January 23, 1776
To the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.
'O thou man of God, there is death in thy pot.'
I went into the country soon after I called on you to prevent the fatal effects of your enormous prescription of one or two drams of
Appendix D verdegris. On my return to town I find your very unsatisfactory and evasive reply. Motives of humanity and benevolence have induced several gentlemen, in my absence (who are entirely strangers to me), to favour the public with their remarks on your publication, and their directions how you ought to proceed to prevent, as far as possible, its destructive consequences. As you have not thought proper to take any farther notice, I think it incumbent on me, as a duty I owe to the public and in justice to myself, to declare that I do really think that you wrote ONE OR TWO DRAMS OF VERDE
GRIS m your prescription, and that the printer is not to blame.
One of the gentlemen, who has signed 'Antidote', to whom I am totally unknown, tells you he has your eighth edition, which agrees exactly with the sixteenth in prescribing one or two drams, and not grains.
You have been called on to tell the public which is the edition that is free from this unlucky blunder of the printers. You make no reply. When you produce an edition with the words 'one or two grains of verdegris' in this prescription, you may assure yourself the public shall be again convinced that there is still death in the pot, and you will have farther occasion to hide yourself behind this unfortunate printer.
But I forget myself. My style is offensive to you. It will therefore be a 'more obliging manner' of communicating my thoughts to produce a passage from a book, with the letter of which at least you are well acquainted.
There was a dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him [Elisha], and he said unto his servant. Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap-full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not.
So they poured out for the men to eat; and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot; and they could not eat thereof.
But he said, then bring meal, and he cast it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat; and there was no harm in the pot.16
I make no comment. I neither expound or apply. The public are left at large to find out who gave the false alarm of a dearth of physic in the land, and then ostentatiously produced his great pot of
162 Kings 4:38M0.
Appendix D
Primitive Physic:; or who was the officious person who gathered his lap-full of wild gourds and, ignorant of their good or bad qualities, shred them into the pot. But where shall the[y] find the holy hand to cast in the healing meal, that there may be no harm in the pot!
Indeed, Mr. Wesley, it is much your wisest and best way to throw away the whole mess.
Antidote Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 25, 1776), p. 2.
John Wesley to the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post c. January 23, 1776 Sir, Last week an angry man (sometimes styling himself 'Antidote', sometimes 'S. E.' or 'P. P.') inserted two letters in some of the papers.1' From what motive was this done? I return him his motto,
''Satis apparet cur versus factitaf A It sufficiently appears, from the remarkable words which conclude his second letter: 'I think Mr.
Wesley may be a very good divine. But when he writes upon physic, he proves himself extremely weak and ignorant; and when he writes upon politics, he proves himself an artful knave.' Here the vizor drops off. The Primitive Physic might have escaped, had it not been for the Calm Address.Vl But he will show no mercy to this poor tract, in order to be revenged on the other.
'But how' came this tract into the world, and from what motive was it published?' Above fifty years ago Mr. Boyle's Remedia Parahilia, or Remedies Easy to he Procured20 fell into my hands. I transcribed many of them for my own use, adding a few more from books or conversation, and afterwards from a treatise I found in Carolina entitled Every Man his own Physician A After proving the virtue of many of these, near forty years since I published Receipts for the Use of the Poor. Some years after, this was greatly enlarged and printed
17 Neither of these letters has been located in any of the prominent London papers, but their general tenor can be gained from JW's quotations in this response.
18 Horace, Ars Poetica, 1. 470; 'It is not easy to discover why he bothers himself with writing'.
19 JW's Calm Address to Our American Colonies (1775).
20 JW apparently means Robert Boyle (1627-91), Some Receipts of Medicines, For the most part Parable and Simple. Sent to a Friend in America (London, 1688).
21 John Tennent (c. 1700-90), Every Man His Own Doctor: or, The Poor Planter's Physician (Williamsburg, VA: William Parks, 1734).
Appendix D under the title of Primitive Physic. My motive for printing it stands in the title-page, in the well-known sentence,
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum put o.11
Come we now to the charge. This writer begins with a round peremptory assertion: 'He treats the whole body of physicians and apothecaries as a set of ignorant and designing knaves.' Shamelessly false! In this very piece, I speak of Dr. Cheyne and Dover with honour, as well as the great and good Dr. Sydenham.23 'He treats all chemical and Galenical medicines as useless and dangerous compounds.' Galenicals! A cruelly hard word, which this writer does not seem to understand. I acquit him from being either apothecary or physician. Why, I recommend few but Galenical medicines; such simple and uncompounded medicines as Galen himself used to prescribe.
'But the greatest part of them are inefficacious.' How' do you know? Have you ever tried them? 'Some are extremely dangerous.'
Point out six, if you can, out of seven or eight hundred. 'And the doses are for the most part indeterminate.' Not so. For the most part they are determinate; and whenever they are not, common sense is sufficient to determine.
'The greatest part of them he does not mark tried. How then can he recommend them?' Perfectly well. Partly on the testimony of those who have tried them, though I have not; partly on the authority of eminent physicians, such as Dr. Willis, Sydenham,
Radcliffje], Freind, and Mead.24
Hitherto we had only general charges. Now we come to particulars. [1.] 'He recommends cold bathing in deep consumptions.' My words are, 'Cold bathing has cured many deep consumptions.'25 It has so; yet I do not recommend it (as you affirm) 'for every kind of consumption'. That is a gross wilful slander. Let him prove it that can.
Self-Tormentor, 25; JW translates in his Letter on Tea as 'I am a man; nothing human is foreign to me'.
23 George Cheyne (1671-1743), Thomas Dover (1660-1742), and Thomas Sydenham (1624-89).
24 Thomas Willis (1621-75), Thomas Sydenham (1624-89), John Radcliffe (1652-1714), John Freind (1675-1728), and Richard Mead (1673-1754). No published receipts have been traced with confidence to Freind or Radcliffe in Primitive
Physic.
25 See above, Primitive Physic, §49, receipt # 1.
Appendix D
2. 'He recommends bleeding six ounces every day.' I do not recommend it at all. I barely transcribe a case from Dr. Dover.26 The words 'if he live' are his, not mine. But I now add I have known the experiment tried, and I never knew it kill one patient.
3. 'For a pleurisy and a quinsy he recommends trifling things.'
Trifling or not, they cure, and that without any bleeding; nay, three times in four, without any internal medicine.
4. 'He advises the cold bath for the following diseases.' So far I advise this: I say on the authority of Dr. Barnard and Sir John
Floyer 'it frequently cures' these diseases.27 And does it not? Can any man deny it? If he can, these physicians must bear the blame.
5. Nay, 'Mr. Wesley is bold enough to recommend the cold bath, without any kind of restriction and without any previous evacuation.'
O blush, if you can. Blush, if you have any regard left, either for truth or shame! My very words are use the cold bath 'unless you are in a far advanced age, or extremely weak'.28 But when you use it, on any account whatever, it is proper to bleed or purge before you begin.
Who can account for these palpable, barefaced falsehoods, advanced without rhyme or reason? Only on this supposition: a red hot American will say anything to blacken one that loves King
George.
Whatever candid men have to object, either against the Primitive Physic or any other part of my writings, I am willing to consider, and shall be thankful to those who do it in a calm dispassionate manner. Fifty years ago I imagined I knew a great deal; now I am convinced I know exceedingly little. And the voice of my heart both to God and man is, 'What I know not, teach thou me.'29
I am, sir, Your very humble servant,
John Wesley Source', published transcription; Lloyd's Evening Post (Jan. 26-29, 1776), 102.
26 See above, Primitive Physic, §49, receipt #9.
27 John Floyer (1649-1734), The Ancient Psychrolousia Revived; or, an essay to prove cold bathing both safe and useful... also a letter of Dr. [Edward] Baynard s
(London: Samuel Smith & Benjamin Walford, 1702). See the table of diseases cured by cold-bathing appended to Primitive Physic.
28 JW cited receipt 23 of Primitive Physic, as it appeared in Works (Pine), 25:26
(see above, §3, receipt #4).
29 Cf. Job. 34:32.
690 Appendix D
John Wesley's Reply to 'Antidote', 'XXX', etc. c. January 26, 1776 To the Printer of the Gazetteer
In one respect I am much obliged to the gentlemen (or gentleman) who spend so much time upon the Primitive Physic, and would humbly entreat them to say something about it (no matter what) in half a dozen more of your papers. If nothing was said about it, most people might be ignorant that there was any such tract in the world. But their mentioning it makes many inquire concerning it, and so disperses it more and more.
The gentleman signing himself 'XXX' in your last week's paper (probably Mr. 'Antidote') seems now to have shot his last bolt, and that feebly indeed. But he begins magnanimously: 'Mr. Wesley is too proud, too self-sufficient, and too much wrapped up in his selfimportance to vouchsafe either Mr. Caleb Evans or any other correspondent anything in the shape of an answer.' How grievously does this man stumble at the threshold! With what glaring, palpable falsehood does he set out! Have I not given a direct answer, both to Mr.
Evans50 and 'Antidote' and 'S. E.' and 'P. P.'5! in the public papers?
However, I am obliged to him for informing me of the difference between 'ounces, scruples, drachms, or drams, and grains'. Otherwise, after mistaking a dram for a grain, I might have mistaken an ounce for a dram.
But a dreadful objection comes next: 'Some people "run as they read".52 Mr. Wesley's whole progressive life stands as a proof that he is one of that species of readers. In that mode he hath read the scriptures, and in that mode doth he read every book.' There is some truth in this. For several years, while my brother and I travelled on foot, our manner was for him that walked behind to read aloud some book of history, poetry, or philosophy. Afterwards for many years (as my time at home was spent mostly in writing) it was my custom to read things of a lighter nature chiefly when I was on horseback. Of late years, since a friend gave me a chaise, I have read them in my carriage. But it is not in this manner I treat the Scriptures: these I read and meditate upon day and night. It was not in
30 See JW's letter of Dec. 9, 1775, above.
31 See JW's letter of c. Ian. 23, 1776, above.
32 See Hab. 2:2.
Appendix D
running that I wrote twice over the Notes on the New Testament (to say nothing of those on the Old), containing above 800 quarto pages.
'But was this supposed misprint of dram for grain ever corrected before the error was detected in the Gazetteer? Your next question answers this: 'Or was it only referred to in the errata, with "pro dram, lege grain"?
I add a word concerning the former objection. I do still in a sense 'run as I read'. I make haste, though I do not hurry. It behooves me so to do, as my work is great and my time is short. For how much can a man expect to remain who has seen between seventy and eighty years? And may I not plead for some indulgence, even on this account, if I am mistaken in more points than one?
Source: published transcription; The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 31, 1776), 2.
Publication of William Hawes, An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's 'Primitive Physic'
[February-April 1776]
Advance Advertisement
Next month will be published An Examination of a pamphlet written by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, entitled Primitive Physic; showing that a great number of the prescriptions therein contained are founded on ignorance of the medical art, and of the power and operation of medicines; and that it is a publication calculated to do essential injury to health and constitution of those persons who place confidence in it.
By W. Hawes, Apothecary
Published by the same author, The Effects of Dr. James's Powders, in the late Dr. Goldsmith's Illness. To which is added, Remarks on the Use and Abuse of Powerful Medicines in the beginning of Fevers and other
Acute Diseases. The third edition, with corrections and an appendix.
N.B. Mr. Hawes thinks it his duty, as a member of society, to return his thanks to the writer who signed himself'Antidote', in this paper,
Appendix D on the 25th of December last, who happily discovered the prescription of one or two drachms of verdigris advised to counteract poison; as he acknowledges that it was his humane and sensible letter to Mr. Wesley which made him examine critically the other parts of this work; and although there are not many prescriptions that have
so immediate a tendency to destroy the persons who may take them, yet there are very many that evince the extreme imprudence of those who follow so injudicious and erroneous a guide.
Source: The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Feb. 3, 1776), p. 1
[and repeated in several settings in following days].
Publication Announcement
First edition: The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Apr. 27, 1776), p. 4.
Third edition with corrections and appendix: St. James' Chronicle (May 2-4, 1776), p. 3.
Serialization The Gazetteer published a series of excerpts, in recognition of the fact that Hawes credited the letter by 'Antidote' for sparking his
work. See (July 13, 1776), 2; (July 19, 1776), 2; (July 23, 1776), 2; (July 25, 1776), 2; (Aug. 3, 1776), 2; and (Aug. 24, 1776), 2.
Commendation of William Hawes, An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's
'Primitive Physic'
Colchester May 11, 1776
Medical Society J. H. Lisle, F. R. S., President
Resolved unanimously that the thanks of this Society be presented to Mr. Hawes for the present of his valuable publication, and for
Appendix D 693
the unwearied pains and industry that he has taken in the promotion of true medical knowledge, as well as in exposing the ignorance and dangerous tendency of pretenders to the science of medicine; and also for his attention to the Society, and the interest thereof.
P. R. Newell, Secretary
Source: published excerpt; Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (May 25, 1776), p. 2.
Public Debate on William Hawes, An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's
'Primitive Physic'
[May 17, 1776]
Debate advertised Society for Free Debate Queen's Arms, Newgate Street
Tomorrow [Friday, May 17] the following question will be debated: Is a certain apothecary justifiable in the liberties he has taken with the Rev. Mr. Wesley in a recent publication called An Examination of 'Primitive Physic?
Source: The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (May 16, 1776), p. 3.
Debate portrayed A correspondent who was present at the Queen's Arms in Newgate Street when the question relative to Mr. Hawes's Examination of Wesley's 'Primitive Physic' was debated observes that the advertisement dated from that place was partial, as there never was a more complete and honourable victory than that obtained by Mr.
Hawes, since there was not a single hand held up in opposition to his conduct. He further observes that, notwithstanding the majority of speakers were against that worthy gentleman, his advocates found no
Appendix D difficulty in supporting so just a cause as that of reason and humanity. By an examination of the grand principles of the noble science of physic, they clearly proved Mr. Hawes's superiority over Mr. Wesley in point of medical knowledge. The latter appeared imprudent (if not criminal) in having undertaken so important a task as that of composing a system of physic without sufficient abilities to execute
it with judgment and propriety; while Mr. Hawes stood confessed a man of skill in his profession, the friend of his fellow creatures, and the just censurer of a vain pretender to an acquaintance with a science of which he was totally ignorant.
Source: The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (May 25, 1776), p. 3.
Published Reviews of William Hawes, An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's
'Primitive Physic1 (London: for the Author, 1776)
Those who reflect that the science of medicine can only be improved by observation, and who likewise know how' much advantage it has derived from the discoveries in natural philosophy, will entertain but a very unfavourable idea of Primitive Physic. Had Mr. Wesley prudently restricted himself within the limits of his profession, by elucidating the principles of primitive religion, he might have edified his readers much more, without either endangering their temporal welfare, or exposing his own opinions to the imputation of medical ignorance, of which he is so clearly convicted in this examination. A person may dogmatize with plausibility on speculative subjects, but the errors of practical empiricism are open to the plainest detection.
Source: The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature 41 (Apr. 1776):
406.
II.
The design of this publication is sufficiently apparent from the very prefix title page. Mr.Wesley's Primitive Physic has now gone
Appendix D
through between twenty and thirty editions; yet this, we think, is the first attack that has been made upon it by any of the faculty, though its author has endeavoured to give the world very unfavourable ideas of physicians and apothecaries both as to their abilities and integrity.
With a good intention and much credulity Mr. Wesley, it must be owned, has prescribed many remedies that are trifling, and some that are pernicious. Of the latter class is No. 683, 'To one poisoned.
Give one or two drachms of distilled verdigris, it vomits in an instant ,'33
Some just animadversions on this in the Gazetteer of December 25,
1775, 'as being sufficient to poison twenty or thirty people', gave rise to these remarks. And in truth Mr. Wesley's saying, in answer, that 'this is a mere blunder of the printer (drachms for grains) in one or more of the editions', when it has actually been found in many more,34 and it is supposed has passed through all; and when 'drams' and 'grains' are so unlike that no printer could easily mistake them; and his only advertising the error in one or two papers, instead of cancelling the leaf—are not consistent with his usual candour and humanity.
From such a miscellaneous production it is difficult to know what to select. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with one or two paragraphs which we think may be generally useful:
Mr. Wesley (says this writer) has given sundry directions respecting young children, and their diseases. But I must do him the justice to observe that he has never once recommended Godfrey's cordial.35
And, indeed, this is a very pernicious opiate, however frequently it
may be administered by ignorant nurses.
They give it to children for their own ease, without considering or understanding its tendency. It has unquestionably been productive of much mischief. It tends to ruin the constitution of children, and the consequences of taking it have been much more frequently fatal than is generally apprehended. It is the earnest wish of the writer that this hint may be duly attended to by parents and those who have the care of young children. The state of our national population is at too low an ebb for the lives of children to be sacrificed to the ignorance of old women, or to the indolence of nurses [p. 29].
33 See §177, receipt #1 in this edn.
34 Footnote in review: 'The 5th, the 8th, and 16th, mentioned by this writer; to which may be added the 19th and 13th, now lying before us.'
35 Godfrey's Cordial contained one grain of opium in each two ounces.
Appendix D This caution is doubtless highly proper. We wish therefore to extend it as much as possible, and may it sink deep into the hearts of all nurses, all parents, who peruse this article! When they know that this sleep is the sleep of death, as being procured merely by intoxication, no other arguments surely can be wanting to prevail with them to restrain and abolish the use of this destructive dram.
The other passage we shall select may be useful to another branch of our readers, the drinkers of punch.
I have often observed (says this practitioner) upon enquiring, when sent for to patients affected with complaints of the stomach or
bowels, that they had overnight or the preceding day drank punch; and, from the effects and the smell of the matters thrown up, had every reason to think that, instead of lemon juice, the acid used w'as the vitriolic spirit.36 And indeed it is hardly possible for anyone to know, in such a farrago as punch, what kind of ingredients it con
sists of [p. 79], To prevent such bad consequences, he advises the punch drinkers to become punch makers, and also dissuades the making it with preserved lemon juice, 'as it is always rushing into new fermentations, and though not so bad as vitriol, yet it is by no means so wholesome as the juice when squeezed immediately from the fruit itself.'
Just and seasonable as these and many other observations are, much more weight would they have had with the reader, and reflected much more credit on the writer, if less lemon-juice had been squeezed into them, if they had been free from a sourness and rancour full as nauseating as the vitriolic spirit with which a man of Mr.
Wesley's acknowledged abilities, and (we must add) integrity and zeal in the labour of love, deserv es not to be treated, however fallible and mistaken he may be in his prescriptions both for the soul and the body, politic as well as natural. Such treatment may irritate and provoke, but can never convince or conciliate an opponent. Yet, strange as it seems, 'Mr. H. has no personal animosity against Mr.
W. to whom he is totally unknown' [p. 83]. We are sorry that he does not know' himself.
Source'. Gentlemans Magazine 46 (May 1776): 226-227; reprinted in Scots Magazine (June 1776): 325-26.
36I.e., sulphuric acid.
Appendix D
III.
Highly as we think the public indebted to many of the medical practitioners of the present times, there are few to whom it owes greater obligations than to the worthy author of this publication.
The part he has taken in the institution of the society for the recovery of drowned persons, in conjunction with his ingenious colleague
Dr. [Thomas] Cogan, does him particular honour. And though his zeal in the case of Dr. [Oliver] Goldsmith may have been misconstrued as tending to decry a powerful and efficacious medicine, he certainly acted the part of a judicious apothecary in advising against its indiscriminate and injudicious administration.
In the present case it is to be lamented that the infamous publication to which it is intended as an antidote did not fall sooner into his hands, as it is morally impossible (if what the author of it declares respecting its sale be true37) that it must not have been eventually the cause of many murders! We can hardly speak of it, indeed, with common patience—as whatever excuse may be made for the quackery of ignorant old women, we cannot help thinking that a man of Mr. Wesley's education, knowledge of the world, and pretensions to religion, conscious as he must be of his ignorance of medicine and his influence over others (if possible more ignorant than himself), deserves for this piece of physical empiricism neither more or less than to be hanged. For in murder, accessories are principals.
And though he might not be guilty of malice aforethought, he certainly did it at the instigation of the devil, not having the fear of God before his eyes; which in a professed divine is truly diabolical.
The recipes contained in Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic are no fewer than one thousand and twelve; from the remarks on many which Mr. Hawes sufficiently proves that no person can 'with any degree of safety, rely on a compilation so extremely injudicious; the pretended remedies contained therein being often of no use, and those which might be of utility generally unattended with such directions, or regard to times and circumstances, as would be necessary to render them efficacious; and indeed, often calculated only to produce the most dangerous and fatal effects' [p. 9].
We shall content ourselves with quoting only two:
37 Note in review: 'Having gone through, as Mr. Wesley informs the public, twenty or thirty editions.'
698 Appendix D
'No. 445. For a Bloody Flux, drink cold water as largely as possible till the flux stops.'38
Well said, Dr. Sangrado.39 It is plain that if the patient is carried off by the flux before it stops, he will not have drank cold water enough, or as largely as possible.
'No. 683. To one poisoned, give one or two drachms of distilled verdigris.'40
A dose that would effectively poison twenty or thirty people, though not poisoned before. But this, Doctor Wesley says, is an error of the press that has escaped the corrector in one or more of the twenty or thirty editions of the publication. For 'drachms' read
'grains'. We should be apt, indeed, to make many grains of allowance for errors of the press, by which we are so often made to write nonsense. But Mr. Hawes assures us that this excuse 'is an artful evasion. For this error is in the fifth, the eighth, and the sixteenth editions; and there is the reason to believe that it has passed through every edition; for though Mr. Wesley has been publicly called upon to point out the edition in which there was not this error, he has not been able to point out any one' [p. 66]. Mr. Hawes, indeed, sufficiently exposes the effrontery of this reverend quack.
His pamphlet, however, is not confined merely to the pointing out such errors as might prove most fatal; his medical remarks and observations serving to set those persons right whom Mr. Wesley may have misled. We earnestly recommend it, therefore, as particularly useful, and even necessary, to all such as pay regard to Mr. Wesley's
Primitive Physic.
Source: London Review Of English And Foreign Literature 3 (May 1776): 412-13.
IV The number of editions that Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic hath passed through, replete as it is with ignorance, error, and absurdity, affords such an instance of assurance on the one hand, and credulity on the other, as can scarcely be parallelled.
38 See §117, receipt #2 in this edn.
39 'Dr. Sangrado' was a character in Alain-Rene Lesage's novel Gil Bias, portrayed as a quack.
40 See §177, receipt #1 in this edn.
Appendix D
To point out the gross blunders of that work, and to guard the unwary from the dangers to which an implicit confidence in it would expose them, is the present writer's laudable design.
In the preface to this Examination Mr. Hawes tells us that the 'writer, or rather compiler, of the Primitive Physic has laboured to give mankind the most unfavourable ideas of the practitioners in physic and pharmacy' [p. i]; in proof of which he cites this passage from Mr. Wesley's performance, viz.:
'Experience shows that one thing will cure most disorders, at least
as well as twenty put together. Then why do you add the other nineteen? Only to swell the apothecary's bill; nay, possibly, to prolong the distemper, that the doctor and he may divide the spoil' [Primitive Physic, p. xiv].
This representation of the gentlemen of the faculty (says Mr.
Hawes) may possibly not be thought very candid, nor very equitable. And if Mr. Wesley's conduct as a divine, a politician, and a practitioner in physic were to be examined with the same degree of candour that he hath exercised towards others, he would certainly not appear in the most advantageous light. At least it would be manifest that he was far enough from perfection, though that is a doctrine for which he is well known to be a very zealous advocate. But perhaps those who are not thoroughly initiated in Mr. Wesley's peculiar tenets may not have a proper idea of what those qualities are which are necessary to constitute a perfect man. It is certain that, if Mr.
Wesley be of this character, a regard to truth is not so necessary to it—of which the Rev. Evans of Bristol can afford ample testimony.41
But however uncandid, or unjust, Mr. Wesley's representation of the gentlemen of the faculty may be, it seemed necessary to promote the sale of his Primitive Physic. And in this his views appear to have been answered; sixteen editions at least having been printed of this compilation; and that this large sale has not arisen from the merit of the performance will, I am confident, be acknowledged by every man skilled in the treatment of diseases [pp. ii-v].
41 The review reproduces this footnote from Hawes:
' Vide the second edition of Mr. [Caleb] Evans's letter to Mr. Wesley, in which he has been convicted of premeditated falsehood, upon the clearest and most unexceptional evidence. Mr. Wesley's attempt towards a defence upon this subject in the newspapers, serves, if possible, to render him still more contemptible.
'The writer of this meddles not with political disputes, but takes the liberty to observe, that some regard to truth was thought necessary, in old fashioned systems, to constitute the character of an honest man, of whatever party he might be.'
700 Appendix D
With respect to the mode in which our author has conducted his Examination, we observe that he has, upon the whole, acquitted himself, though not in a brilliant, yet in a very decent manner.
If his remarks are not always sagacious, if his distinctions are not always accurate, and if his ridicule is not always poignant, it must be allowed that his animadversions are commonly just; that he has clearly convicted Mr. Wesley of the most disgraceful ignorance; and that he has satisfactorily evinced the dangerous tendency of that gentleman's Primitive Physic.
Source: Monthly Review; or; Literary Journal 54 (May 1776): 419— 20.
Sensible, shrewd, and sarcastic. The author appears to possess a considerable share of medical knowledge, and to have attacked Mr.
Wesley with the joint force of wit, ridicule, and argument, as the reader may judge from the following extracts.
Old Age.42
No. 629. Take tar-water morning and evening. Tried.
No. 630. Or, decoction of nettles; either of these will probably renew the strength for some years.
No. 631. Or, be electrified daily.
Mr. Wesley, who is a most incomparable practitioner, has remedies for a disease of all others the most inveterate; viz. old age. Tar water is a 'tried' remedy; or if that tried prescription should be found not sufficiently efficacious, decoction of nettles; and 'either of these'
(he says) 'will probably renew the strength for some years'. Or if the patient feels old age an unconquerable disorder, he recommends being electrified daily. This hint is worthy the attention of the ingenious Dr. [Joseph] Priestley. As when the arcana of electricity are completely laid open, an electrical shock judiciously administered, and repeated with sufficient frequency, might peradventure extend a man's life to a thousand years. Or if it were only five hundred, it might be as advantageous to the public as Dr. Priestley's discoveries respecting fixed air, though these have justly entitled this gentleman
42 See Primitive Physic, §163 in this edn.
Appendix D 701
to that applause which he hath universally received in the philosophic world [pp. 62-63].
No. 652 to 664. These are external applications for the cure of the piles.43 But they deserve little regard. This is one of those disorders which, though very painful, generally tend to do great good to the constitution. For when a person is of a sanguineous or melancholic temperament, or his vessels act very strongly, this is the most happy determination that nature can take; and although the piles may return several times, and no evacuation of blood be occasioned, yet the stimulus is tending that way; and if the pain and uneasiness should be removed by repellents or astringents, it will often be at the hazard of the life of the patient. I have been a melancholy eyewitness of the truth of this assertion in two or three cases in my own practice, where persons, from the uneasiness they suffered, have (contrary to my advice) rashly applied some astringent, which has suddenly removed the piles, and made a very slight and salutary complaint terminate in an apoplexy [p. 63].
The following hints to punch-drinkers may prove useful to some readers:
As we are on the subject of vomiting, the reader will perhaps excuse me if I make a little digression, relative to what has appeared to me to be a frequent cause of a propensity to vomiting. I have often observed upon enquiry, when sent for to patients affected with complaints of the stomach or bowels, that they had over-night, or the preceding day, drank punch', and the effects, and the smell of the matters thrown up, had every reason to think, that instead of lemon juice, the acid used was the vitriolic spirit; and, indeed, it is hardly possible for anyone to know in such a farrago punch, what kind of ingredients it consists of.
I am firmly convinced that there is hardly anything tends so much to weaken and relax the stomach, and bring on various ill consequences, such as indigestion, loss of appetite, etc. as bad punch.
And therefore I earnestly advise the punch drinkers to have their fruit, spirits, etc. brought to them separately, and to become punch
makers', by which means they will know what the compound consists of, and that it is not a composition of bad sprits, vitriol, etc.
Indeed, I would recommend that preserved lemon juice should never
43 See Primitive Physic, §171 in this edn.
Appendix D be used, as it is always running into new fermentations, and though not so bad as vitriol, yet is by no means so wholesome as the juice when squeezed immediately from the fruit itself. As vomiting and other disagreeable symptoms affecting the stomach may eventually injure the whole system, because the stomach can never be long disordered without mischief arising to the animal economy in general, therefore these hints may not be unworthy of attention. And if they are productive of any utility, there will be the less reason to apolo
gise for the digression [p. 79].
Source: Westminster Magazine (May 1776): 259-60.
VI.
The design of this pamphlet appears to be very laudable, being intended, as the writer says, to prevent these fatal accidents which arise from the use of the various improper prescriptions upon which he has here animadverted. We believe there was some necessity for such a publication, having remembered to have seen in the public prints some severe and just strictures on Mr. Wesley's directions for using verdigrease as an antidote to poison. Mr. Hawes appears to have convicted that gentleman of being equally ignorant and credulous, and has urged his proofs with the united force of ridicule and professional knowledge.
The following extracts will afford a specimen of the writer's manner of treating his subject. The reader will be pleased to observe that the passages printed in italics are taken from Mr. Wesley's pamphlet, to each of which Mr. Hawes's remarks are subjoined.
No. 135. Take horse spurs and dry them by the fire till they will beat to powder; sift and infuse two drachms in two quarts of ale; drink half a pint every six hours; new milk warm.—It has cured many. Tried.
No. 136. Apply goose dung and celandine beat together, and spread on a fine rag. It will both cleanse and heal the sore.44
Mr. W. advises horse spurs as an internal medicine and goose dung as an outward application, together with many other remedies for the cure of cancers equally unaccountable. It is a melancholy truth that ignorant men have always curatives in abundance for incurable
See §26, receipts ##9-10 in this edn.
Appendix D
complaints. As for the medical virtues of the many prescriptions advised by Mr. W. for cancers, there can be little more objection to them than to his powder of toad in the convulsive asthma [pp.
25-26].
A Cancer in the Mouth. No. 141 to 150.45
Mr. W. has prescribed several external applications for the cure of cancers affecting the mouth. And although one has the mark of
'infallibility' affixed to it, and another the word 'tried', notwithstanding all his boasted remedies it will be highly prudent in so serious a complaint to apply to a good surgeon, who, it may reasonably be presumed, will make use of those applications which his experience and judgment inform him are the most likely to prove successful.
I shall conclude my observations on cancers with one general remark; which is that interested and designing men have called every ulcer of difficult cure which attacks the breast or mouth a cancer, and unfortunately the person so afflicted is unable to distinguish the one
from the other. But it may safely be affirmed that no real cancer was ever cured, it being a disease dependent on the laws of fermentation, and for that reason cannot be eradicated out of the constitution; as one particle of cancerous matter remaining is sufficient to renew all the aggravated symptoms of this horrid distemper. It is well known
that experienced and able surgeons daily cure the worst ulcers. And it is equally well known that the humane and worthy part of that profession lament the many impostors who are every day starting
up, to deceive the public with their pretended nostrums, and which too often, by their corrosive applications, increase the misery and hasten the death of the unhappy sufferer [p. 26],
Old Age.46
No. 629. Take tar-water morning and evening. Tried.
No. 630. Or, decoction of nettles; either of these will probably renew the strength for some years.
No. 631. Or, be electrified daily.
45 See §28 in this edn.
46 See §163 in this edn.
Appendix D Mr. Wesley, who is a most incomparable practitioner, has remedies for a disease of all others the most inveterate; viz. old age. Tar water is a 'tried' remedy; or if that tried prescription should be found not sufficiently efficacious, decoction of nettles; and 'either of these'
(he says) 'will probably renew the strength for some years.' Or if the patient feels old age an unconquerable disorder, he recommends being electrified daily. This hint is worthy the attention of the ingenious Dr. [Joseph] Priestley. As when the arcana of electricity are completely laid open, an electrical shock judiciously administered, and repeated with sufficient frequency, might peradventure extend
a man's life to a thousand years. Or if it were only five hundred, it might be as advantageous to the public as Dr. Priestley's discoveries respecting fixed air, though these have justly entitled this gentleman to that applause which he hath universally received in the philosophic world [pp. 62-63].
These are external applications for the cure of the piles. But they deserve little regard. This is one of those disorders which, though very painful, generally tend to do great good to the constitution.
For when a person is of a sanguineous or melancholic temperament, or his vessels act very strongly, this is the most happy determination that nature can take. And although the piles may return several times, and no evacuation of blood be occasioned, yet the stimulus is tending that way. And if the pain and uneasiness should be removed
by repellents or astringents, it will often be at the hazard of the life of the patient. I have been a melancholy eyewitness of the truth of this assertion in two or three cases in my own practice, where persons, from the uneasiness they suffered, have (contrary to my advice) rashly applied some astringent, which has suddenly removed the piles, and made a very slight and salutary complaint terminate in an apoplexy [p. 63].
To Stop Vomiting,48 No. 943. Apply a large onion slit to the pit of the stomach. Tried.
That a slit of onion applied externally should be a good and a tried remedy for an internal disease is somewhat extraordinary. But ex-
47See §171 in this edn.
48See §276 in this edn.
Appendix D
traordinary remedies can excite no surprise to any man who is well read in Mr. W.'s Primitive Physic, and who gives any degree of credit to the marvellous assertions which are contained therein.
No. 945. Infuse an ounce of quicksilver in a large glass full of water for twenty-four hours. Then drink the water: I.
This is given as an infallible prescription, for the unerring letter 'I' is affixed to it. But as the writer is no friend of implicit faith, he is apt to entertain some doubts of its efficacy. When a person is afflicted with a vomiting, according to Mr. W.'s rule, he must wait twentyfour hours before he can apply his remedy. And when it is procured, it is not very probable that any good effects can be produced from it, as not the ten thousandth part of a grain will be dissolved in the menstruum (the water), and will prove as insipid and inefficacious as the water would have done before the digestion of the quicksilver and water had taken place.
Mr. Wesley prescribes many remedies to stop vomiting. But he never once recommends the mints, camomile, or carduus, though infusions of these stomachic and bitter vegetables are often very serviceable in many complaints of the stomach, such as sickness, retchings, and vomiting. Indeed, Mr. Wesley, in his wonderful performance, seems disposed to fall out with the good old women, as well as with the apothecaries. For the remedies that the former have and do often prescribe with success, he has taken no notice of. But he has in sundry diseases recommended things much more absurd and injurious than what are advised by them.
As we are on the subject of vomiting, the reader will perhaps excuse me if I make a little digression, relative to what has appeared to me to be a frequent cause of a propensity to vomiting. I have often observed upon enquiry, when sent for to patients affected with complaints of the stomach or bowels, that they had over-night, or the preceding day, drank punch', and the effects, and the smell of the matters thrown up, had every reason to think, that instead of lemon juice, the acid used was the vitriolic spirit; and, indeed, it is hardly possible for anyone to know in such a farrago punch, what kind of ingredients it consists of.
I am firmly convinced that there is hardly anything tends so much to weaken and relax the stomach, and bring on various ill consequences, such as indigestion, loss of appetite, etc. as bad punch.
And therefore I earnestly advise the punch drinkers to have their fruit, spirits, etc. brought to them separately, and to become punch
makers', by which means they will know what the compound consists of, and that it is not a composition of bad sprits, vitriol, etc.
Appendix D Indeed, I would recommend that preserved lemon juice should never be used, as it is always running into new fermentations, and though not so bad as vitriol, yet is by no means so wholesome as the juice when squeezed immediately from the fruit itself. As vomiting and other disagreeable symptoms affecting the stomach may eventually injure the whole system, because the stomach can never be long disordered without mischief arising to the animal economy in general, therefore these hints may not be unworthy of attention. And if they are productive of any utility, there will be the less reason to apolo
gise for the digression [pp. 77-79].
Source: London Chronicle (May 25-28, 1776), 1.
VII.
Mr. Wesley's ignorance, or what is worse his versatility and duplicity, both in religion and in politics, have been lately sufficiently detected and exposed. One thing more was wanting to complete his character, and that was to show the world what an excellent physician he also was. This our author hath done effectually. And before Mr. Wesley dabbles any more with politics, it becomes him to defend himself, or satisfy the world how' he came to put the words
'tried' and 'infallible' to prescriptions which, instead of curing, bid fairer for killing the patient. As Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic is in the hands of almost all his followers, we wish them have also the performance now before us, to prevent their trifling with dangerous diseases and suffering irreparable mischief, if not becoming self destroyers. Mr. Hawes's views are laudable, and his observations judicious. The remarks on Wesley's receipts are according to his own arrangement of them, and we shall select a few' as a specimen of the abilities of each person.
Abortion, to prevent.
No. 1. Use a decoction of lignum guiacum\ boiling an ounce in a quart of water.49
Of all the remedies to prevent abortion, this is one of the most improper; for if it were to produce any effect, it would be the very reverse. As this wood contains a stimulating essential oil, it would
49 See Primitive Physic, §1, receipt #3 in this edn.
Appendix D
be disposed to increase the action of the heart and arterial system, so that this medicine in all probability will make the woman more liable to abort [p. 10].
No. 22. A teaspoonful of salt of tartar, in spring water. This also cures double tertians, triple quartans, long lasting fevers, and most diseases arising from obstructions, especially if sena be premised twice or thrice.50
There cannot be put together an assemblage of greater absurdities, as this medicine can have no other tendency than to cause the afflicted to trifle with acute diseases. In fact, in this one section is included the greatest part of the diseases incident to the human body, as the celebrated [Hermann] Boerhaave says that most diseases arise from obstruction. Mr. W[esley]'s assertion, therefore, that this alkaline salt will cure so great a variety of disorders must certainly be a matter of very serious consequence, as so great a number of complaints come under his description in which salt of tartar could produce no good effect. And thus the greatest injury must often be received by those deluded persons who are prevented by their ill-placed confidence in this recipe of Mr. Wesley's, from having recourse to such medicines as would effectually relieve them [p. 12].
No. 25. Apply to each wrist a plaster of treacle and soot.—Tried.51
As the word 'tried' is affixed to this sooty application, it may be presumed the Mr. W[eslev] or his chimney-sweeper, have experienced its efficacy [p. 13].
No. 51. Fill the mouth with salt.52
Mr. W[esley] here recommends filling the mouth with salt; but the most likely consequence of this would be killing the patient, by the stoppage of all respiration [p. 17].
No. 73. Dry and powder a toad, make it into pills, and take one every hour, till the convulsions cease.53
50 See §3, receipt #2 in this edn.
51 See §3, receipt #3 in this edn.
52 See §7, receipt #8 in this edn.
53 See §10, receipt #14 in this edn.
Appendix D Of all Mr. W[esley]'s remedies for the convulsive asthma, powder of toad is the most curious. But it is suited to the credulity of the frequenters of the Foundry [p. 20].
No. 135. Take horse spurs, and dry them by the fire, till they will beat
to powder, sift and infuse two drachms in two quarts of ale; drink half a pint every six hours; now milk warm—It has cured many. Tried.
No. 136. Apply goose dung and celandine beat well together, and spread on a fine rag. It will both cleanse and heal the sore.54
Mr. W[esley] advises horse spurs as an internal medicine and goose dung as an external application, together with many other remedies for the cure of cancer equally unaccountable. It is a melancholy truth that ignorant men have always curatives in abundance for incurable complaints. As for the medical virtues of the many prescriptions advised by Mr. W[esley] for cancers, there can be little more objection to them than to his powder of toad in the convulsive asthma [pp. 25-26].
No. 169. Take six grains of laudanum.55
As Mr. W[esley] uses the word 'grains', he must undoubtedly mean solid opium. Now opium is one of those 'Herculean medicines' which he so pathetically dissuades his readers from the use of in his preface. And yet he here prescribes a dose of this powerful narcotic, which would in all probability cause ninety-nine persons out of an hundred to sleep forever. In disorders in common, the faculty seldom administer above one grain, and scarcely ever exceed two grains [p.
31].
No. 424. Drink every hour a spoonful ofjuice of ground-ivy. It cures in twenty-four hours. Use the decoction when you have not the juice.56
In a rash fever, as it is termed by Mr. W[esley] and other ignorant people, he recommends that the patient should drink ground-ivy juice or decoction. This prescription is equally bold and unsupported.
It is entirely inapplicable to the disease, and none but the weak and credulous will expect any relief from it [p. 47].
54 See §26, receipts ##9-10 in this edn.
55 See §33, receipt #7 in this edn.
56 See §109, receipt #1 in this edn.
Appendix D 709
No. 433. Use the cold bath daily, and drink a draught of water from the spring.57
The cold bath is recommended for the cure of a flux, which must be exceedingly improper, as by suddenly contracting the superficies of the body a load of fluids will be determined to the interior parts, so that the quick and great distention of the interior vessels will have
a tendency rather to increase the flux than to cure it [p. 53].
Mr. Wesley directs that to one poisoned should be given one or two drachms of distilled verdigrease. [...] Two drachms are sufficient to poison above forty persons, and that such a direction should have been given in a book intended for general use, and which has passed through many editions, is a most alarming consideration and ought to have given Mr. W[esley] the greatest concern [pp. 64—65],
If Mr. Wesley had considered the lives of his fellow creatures as an object of much concern, the least he could have done, it might reasonably be presumed, would have been to have cancelled the leaf wherein this dangerous blunder was, and to have caused another to be printed and inserted in the unsold books. But he has done nothing like this. He has only advertised the error in one paper; at least I have seen it in no more. Since he has been attacked on this subject,
I have caused one to be bought in Paternoster Row, which had in it this dangerous prescription, not even altered with the pen. I have, indeed, since sent for one to the Foundry, wherein the blunder was slightly corrected with the pen. But was this all that ought to have been done by Mr. W[esley], as a man of humanity? Or can his negligence in this respect be judged consistent with any due regard to the lives of his fellow creatures? Indeed, it is somewhat extraordinary that when the unexpected success of the Primitive Physic had caused Mr. Wesley, as he says, 'carefully to revise the whole, and to publish it again, with alterations', so enormous a blunder should have passed through all editions. For this appears to have been in fact the case. But the truth probably was that Mr. W[esley]'s ignorance first occasioned this dangerous prescription, and the same ignorance continuing prevented it from being corrected in any of the editions. This, however, shows how little Mr. W[esley]'s judgment
is to be depended on. And the little concern he expresses for leading his readers into an error, which to some may have proved so fatal, is a strong evidence of his insensibility. And when we consider the very extensive sale of his book, the credulity of his followers, and the
57 See §116, receipt #13 in this edn.
710 Appendix D
extreme ignorance which is manifested in many of his prescriptions, may not we say nearly in his own words, 'How many inconveniencies must this have occasioned! How many constitutions may hereby have been ruined! How many valuable lives have been lost!'18 [pp.
67-68]
No. 943. Apply a large onion slit to the pit of the stomach. Tried.-'
That a slit onion applied externally should be a good and a tried remedy for an internal disease is somewhat extraordinary. But extraordinary remedies can excite no surprise to any man who is well read in Mr. W[esley]'s Primitive Physic, and who gives any degree of credit to the marvellous assertions which are contained therein
[pp. 77-78].
Source'. London Magazine: Or, Gentleman s Monthly Intelligencer 45 (July 1776): 381-83.
From 'Public Applause'
[London] c. June 5, 1776
To Mr. Hawes, Author of An Examination of Mr. Wesley's 1Primitive Physic'.
Sir, Nothing can prove more fatal, more baneful, or more destructive to the human race than divinity, physic, and politics, when exhibited by artful and unprincipled bunglers. Because the first must tend to the ruin of the soul, the second to the ruin of the body, and the third to the downfall of mighty and powerful empires. To prove which (particularly the last) we need not wander far back to the annals of history, nor travel to remote realms in search of instances. There has, I doubt not, always been impious divines, seditious quacks, and ignorant and profligate politicians, who have each committed horrid mischiefs in their different professions. But
I never till this era found all these enormities united in one person,
58 Note in review: 'See Wesley's preface, page 28.'
59 See §276, receipt #1 in this edn.
Appendix D
who attempted to poison the soul by religious doctrines, the body individual by quackism, and the body politic by a Jesuitical and daring attempt to vindicate the violent measures of government to tax three millions of unrepresented free-born Englishmen.
However, I am happy to find that he has not succeeded in any of his dark designs; that his various baneful publications have met with an efficacious antidote. But although his unscriptural doctrines have been sufficiently defeated by some worthy members of the Church of England, and his unconstitutional principles by virtuous patriots; yet sir, give me leave to say that none of his adversaries have gained so complete a victory, none of them have been so universally approved of by the public, as your very able and truly learned refutation of his unhermetic Primitive Physic.
It afforded me inexpressible satisfaction to find that the Medical Society had held forth your very humane and virtuous endeavours to the public, by giving you their thanks for your industrious and indefatigable efforts to refute the above pamphlet, and to restore true medical knowledge.60
Sensible that the most salutary consequences must arise to the public at large from that laudable undertaking, permit me sir to render you my hearty thanks for the same in the name of a grateful public.
The restoration of true medical knowledge has indeed been greatly wanted in this country for some time past, but much more so of late years, during which this metropolis in particular has become overflowed with a swarm of quacks from all nations (but chiefly from Germany), to the great prejudice of the credulous part of the community.
But sir, since you have made a successful beginning towards this very requisite reformation, I shall take the liberty to furnish you with a plan which, if put in practice, will at once clear the metropolis of those infectious vermin, quacks, and by which (of course) true medical knowledge will be restored to its ancient lustre and dignity, viz.:
1. That the whole respectable medical gentlemen in this great city form themselves into an association, and raise a subscription amongst themselves for the purpose of prosecuting, according to law, every physical practitioner who has not completed his studies at a British university, and who cannot produce his diploma from the same.
2. To put a stop to the custom of granting royal letters patent to quack medicines, particularly to such (which indeed they all are) as
60 See above, May 11, 1776.
Appendix D are mercurial or antimonial preparations. The efficacy of mercury and antimony is best known in the medical world, and made use of in certain cases and under certain circumstances. But to make them universal medicines, and to give them the sanction of royal patents, is in fact no less than granting patents to destroy mankind in the same manner as they are granted to destroy bugs and rats.
And
3. To treat with the different Irish and Scottish universities, and particularly that of St. Andrew, not to grant a degree to any person but such as is entitled to it by having completely finished his studies there. I say particularly the University of St. Andrew's because I can point out certain persons within my own knowledge in London who never have been within sight of an university, nor ever had any education, and yet obtained (by what means I know not) a diploma from the above university, and now practise as physicians.
If this plan should be executed, I doubt not but it will answer the salutary purpose of abolishing all manner of quackism, and of restoring true medical knowledge, and you will acquire still more
Public Applause
P.S. By way of hint, I recommend to your vigilance an inspection into the characters and medical abilities of a set of men who have lately opened a medical asylum.61
Source: published transcription; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (June 7, 1776), pp. 1-2.
'Anti-Fanaticus' on William Hawes's Examination To Mr. Hawes On His Examination of Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic
When first the title of your book I view'd, With indignation warm my bosom glow'd:
Shall Hawes, I cried, the generous Hawes, descend With Wesley, vile impostor, to contend?
61A medical asylum on Welbeck Street, St. Mary le Bone, announced election of a president of the board in Public Advertiser (May 2, 1776), p. 2.
Appendix D
Vex'd, from my hands I flung the book with rage, Nor deign'd the reading of a single page;
Till calmer reason to my aid return'd, And urg'd the reading of the work I spurn'd.
Now soon I found that all my fears were vain:
Not strife with Wesley, but a cause humane; Not just contempt had stirr'd the author's mind,
But public good, and care for humankind.
And now well pleas'd each hum'rous page I view, And think this character is justly due:
Your book, dear Sir, from death may recuse more, Than can to life your noble plan restore.62
Anti-Fanaticus Source: published transcription; Westminster Magazine (July 1776):
386-87.
John Wesley to William Hawes [London] July 20, 1776
To Mr. Hawes, Apothecary and Critic Sir,
My bookseller informs me that since you published your remarks on the Primitive Physic, or A Natural and Easy Method of curing most
Diseases there has been a greater demand for it than ever. If, therefore, you would please to publish a few farther remarks, you would confer a farther favour upon
Your humble servant, John Wesley Source: published transcription; Lloyd's Evening Post 39 (July 1922, 1776), 79.
62 The author notes that the reference is to the Plan for the Recovery of Persons
Drowned, instituted by Dr. Cogan and Mr. Hawes'.
Appendix D From William Hawes Strand July 24, 1776 Sir, Your short letter, addressed to me, in this paper on Monday last63 is a most astonishing proof of your effrontery and insensibility. I believe it impossible for any man of common probity, or of common humanity, under such circumstances to have answered the charge which I have brought against you in the manner that you have done.
And I have little doubt but the generality of the public will now join with me in the opinion that, notwithstanding your pretensions to sanctity, you are a consummate hypocrite.
I have openly charged you with publishing a book replete with ignorance and calculated to injure the health, and in some cases destroy the lives, of all who depend on it. And in the opinion of most impartial readers, and of many of the ablest medical practitioners, I have proved this charge. In answer to which you say that my Examination of your Primitive Physic has promoted the sale of it, and in this consideration you exult. Is it possible that any man influenced by the common feelings of humanity could have published such an answer to such a charge? Would the most mercenary quack that ever disgraced a stage in Moorfields have satisfied himself with no better a vindication of his character? The ignorance with which your book abounds, and its pernicious tendency, I may venture to assert have been demonstrated. And if your mean and avaricious spirit can find satisfaction in reflecting on the profits of your book, you have no right to rank with any but the most base and unworthy of mankind.
W. Hawes Source: published transcriptions in Lloyd's Evening Post 39 (July 24—26, 1776), 95; and The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser
(Thursday, July 25, 1776), 1-2).
John Wesley to Lloyd's Evening Post [on William Hawes]
July 29, 177664 Sir, It is easy to discern what were the motives that induced Mr. Hawes to make so violent an attack upon the Primitive Physic. The chief,
63The transcription in Gazetteer reads 'addressed to me and published in Lloyd's
Evening Post of the 22d instant'. It then appended a copy of JW's letter.
letter is dated July 27 in London Chronicle and Gazetteer.
Appendix D
doubtless, was that kind of zeal which swallows up both justice and Ttercy. Had the Calm Address6! never appeared, the Primitive Physic might have slept in peace. His consciousness of this made him endeavour to cover the sore place. 'I have not' (says he) 'been induced to this by any consideration of the part Mr. Wesley has taken in the Political world' (p. 83). Believe it who can. He cannot contain himself even to the end of his preface! 'See', says he, 'the second edition of Mr. [Caleb] Evans's letter to Mr. Wesley, in which he has been convicted of premeditated falsehood.' Not so. Both Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Olivers have answered that charge effectually.66 But be it as it may, he must recommend Mr. Evans's letter. There the secret lies.
Yet I will not say he had not a farther motive, resentment for my betraying the common practice of apothecaries. Whether the cap fits him or no, I cannot tell. I fear it does, or he would not be so angry.
Hence it is that he is so liberal of sarcasm and general recollections both on me and my tract: 'Mr. Wesley's character, both as a divine, a politician, and a practitioner in physic, is far enough from perfection' (poor perfection, brought in by head and shoulders!),
'though he is a zealous advocate for it.' 'An injudicious collection of pretended remedies.' 'A publication calculated to do essential injury to mankind.' 'He gives, at his first setting out, a satisfactory evidence of his total want of medical knowledge.'
'He says neither the knowledge of astronomy, natural philosophy, nor even anatomy itself is absolutely necessary to the cure of most diseases.' I do say so still. And yet I may possibly know a little anatomy and natural philosophy. Neither is the 'evidence of my total want of medical knowledge' quite satisfactory. I have read a few medical books (more I perceive than Mr. Hawes ever saw). I have conversed with many physicians, and I have attended sick beds for more than fifty years. By this time, therefore, I may be fairly supposed to have gained a little more, even of medical knowledge.
His regard for the Rev. Mr. Toplady (a gentleman that uses no ceremony with friend or foe, from whom he borrows large quotations, plentifully abusive, and whose whole spirit he has drank
65 JW's Calm Address to Our American Colonies (1775).
66 John William Fletcher, A Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's "Calm Address to our American Colonies ''(London: R. Hawes, 1776): and Thomas Olivers, A hull
Defense of the Rev. John Wesley, in answer to the several personal reflections cast on that gentleman by the Rev. Caleb Evans (London: s.n., 1776).
Appendix D in) I conceive is a third, and no small, motive to his publication.6'
May I sum up all his motives in the words of an author whom I found many years ago in the Bodleian library? 'I write this book
1) to please my friends, 2) to vex my enemies, 3) to get money, and 4) reputation.'
I have only leisure to add a few cursory remarks:
P. 24. 'Where did Mrs. Bates live?'68 Consult Sir John Floyer, and you may learn both the place and other circumstances of the story.
P. 31. You call the chicken broth 'an insignificant remedy for the cholera morbus, prescribed by Mr. Wesley'.69 Nay, it was prescribed by Dr. [Thomas] Sydenham to all his patients, when that disease was epidemic in London.
P. 33. If Mr. Hawes had ever read Sir John Floyer's works, he would have spared these pointless witticisms. The account of Mrs.
Watts,70 as well as Mrs. Bates, rests on his authority, not mine.
P. 35. 'In all the various colics, Mr. Wesley has not advised one purgative or laxative remedy.' I do not say Mr. Hawes is now convicted of premeditated falsehood, but I say his memory fails him.
Let him refresh it by looking at no. 195. 1 If that is not a laxative remedy, I am ignorant indeed.
P. 46. He is witty upon the assertion, that 'plunging into cold water has cured an high fever, attended with delirium'.'2 Strange!
Is Mr. Hawes as little acquainted with Dr. [Thomas] Willis's works as with those of Dr. Sydenham? There he may read at large the account of the young woman in those circumstances whom the doctor cured, restored to perfect health, by plunging her in the Thames.
Ibid. 'Mr. Wesley prescribes forty remedies for an ague! And yet, he says, experience shows that one thing will cure most disorders, at least as well as twenty put together in one medicine.' True, as twenty put together in one medicine. But do I prescribe twenty of
6' See William Hawes, An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's 'Primitive Physic'
(London: for the Author, 1776), 55-56; for quotes of Augustus Montague Toplady, The Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity Asserted (London: Vallance &
Simmons, 1775), vi-viii. Toplady, now a staunch Calvinist Methodists, offered here the earliest known published ridicule of a treatment prescribed in Primitive
Physic (applying raw beefsteak to gout in the foot), noting that Edward Townsend used the treatment and still died.
68 Hawes had raised this question in regard to receipt #130 in the 1774 edn. of Primitive Physic (§26, receipt #2 above in this edition).
69 Hawes had referred to receipt #168 in the 1774 edn. (§33, receipt #2 above).
"Hawes had referred to receipt #197 in the 1774 edn. (§45, receipt #1 above).
71 Wesley was citing receipt #195 in the 1774 edn. (§43, receipt #3 above).
72Hawes had quoted from receipt #413 in the 1774 edn. (§106, receipt #1 above).
Appendix D 717
these so put together? No, never. Yet even here I do not charge Mr.
Hawes with premeditated falsehood, but forgetfulness.
P. 47. 'He seems not to know that an ague and an intermitting fever are the same disease.' I know the contrary. Every ague is an intermitting fever, but every intermitting fever is not an ague.
P. 48. 'Mr. Wesley classes fevers under the following heads.' No, it never was my design to class fevers', but merely to speak of a few, one after another.
P. 50. 'Whoever prescribes thus, whether Mr. Wesley, or any other quack' (civil enough), 'will be in danger of violating the eighth commandment' (commonly called the sixth73).
Ibid. 'Mr. Wesley does not once advise an emetic or purgative at the beginning of fevers.' No! Look at page 31.74 Yet still I will not accuse you of premeditated falsehood. Rather, I say this is the third time you have accused me falsely, out of forgetfulness.
P. 55. That Dr. T[ownsend]7S died at Bath I do not deny, and perhaps of the gout in the stomach. But that the beefsteak repelled it from his feet I do deny, for it does not repel at all. I have tried it myself more than once, or I should hardly have been alive now.
P. 64. 'If the lancet be not freely used in the pleurisy, it will terminate in an abscess.' I know the contrary. I know it may be perfectly cured without using the lancet at all. Although I thought it strange when Dr. Cockburn,76 of St. James's, told me, 'Sir, I never bleed in a pleurisy. I know no end it answers which I cannot answer by other means, without wasting the strength of the patient.' And he accordingly cured my brother of a very high pleurisy, in about nine hours time.7/
P. 66. 'He has insinuated, with a Jesuitism truly characteristic of himself.' Polite indeed! Set this also to the account of the [Calm]
Address.
P. 67. 'Astonishing effrontery!' Is this the voice of a gentle apothecary, or a friend [of] Mr. T[oplady]?
731.e., 'thou shalt not kill' rather than 'thou shalt not bear false witness'.
74 On p. 31 of the 1774 edition of Primitive Physic, the first receipt given for a 'Tertian Ague' (which is an intermitting fever) is 'taking a purge one day, and the next bleeding, in the beginning of the fit' (§3, receipt #1 above).
75 Edward Townsend, dean of Norwich cathedral, and the case raised against JW by Augustus Toplady.
76 William Cockburn (1669-1739), of St. James's Street, Westminster, made his fortune from a remedy for dysentery which he developed for the British navy.
77 See the entry for May 18-19, 1738, in S T Kimbrough Jr. & K.G.C. Newport (eds.), The Manuscript Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A. (Nashville, TN:
Kingswood Books, 2008).
Appendix D P. 72. 'We have Mr. Wesley's authority for it that a poultice of powdered coal has cured even a carious bone.'/8 Pity Mr. Hawes should thus betray his ignorance! Does he not know that the account of this eminent cure, wrought by a surgeon at Montpellier, was published in several magazines not many years ago?
P. 78. 'This is given as an infallible medicine.' No. I believe no medicine is infallible. The letter 'I' means only (as I observe in the preface) that many account it so.
However, I again thank Mr. Hawes for his publication. I am glad to learn of him, or any man. I have accordingly read it over with care, in consequence whereof, in the edition of the Primitive Physic which I am now preparing for the press,791 have omitted forty or fifty remedies. I have endeavoured to guard others. I have adopted several of his practical observations. So that I have reason to hope the present edition will be more useful than any of the former.
John Wesley P.S. From Mr. Hawes's letter of the 25th instant I learn that he has lost all patience as well as good manners. Hence he splutters out abundance of Billingsgate language,80 without either fear or wit. As the weather is hot, I would humbly advise him to take a cooling potion. Neither could anyone at all object, in so melancholy a tale, to a 'free use of the lancet'.
Source: published transcriptions in Lloyd's Evening Post 39 (July 31 -Aug. 2, 1776), p. 113; London Chronicle 40 (Aug. 1-3, 1776), p.
117; and Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Aug. 2, 1776), p. 2.81
From 'Talus'
c. August 1, 1776 Rev. Sir, Destitute as you are of the feelings of humanity, I do not wonder at your affected air of sovereign contempt for Mr. [William] Hawes in a late scandalous letter, dated July 20th, the whole of which is a downright grimace, that you only wanted to screen for your malice. And that the pretence of a greater demand for your now repro-
,s Hawes was citing receipt #741 in the 1774 edn. (§194, receipt #5 above).
79 Wesley published the 17th edition of Primitive Physic (London: Robert Hawes) in late 1776.
801.e., profanity; as common in the Billingsgate fish market.
81 There are a few minor variants among versions; we follow Lloyd's Evening Post.
Appendix D
bated pamphlet is no other than an indecent cover for putting this last weak effort of your rage in print. But perhaps, reverend sir, in your list of virtues this pretended unconcern is reckoned not the least among them; and yet others may think, and some I doubt not will dare to call it, a mere brutish obstinacy, or the more filthy obstinacy of a priest.
Talus Source: published transcription; London Chronicle (Aug. 3-6, 1776), 127.
William Hawes [Reply to Wesley's public letter of July 27] Strand August 6, 1776 Sir,
Mr. Wesley at length appears to be sensible that an answer was necessary to my Examination of his Primitive Physic of a different kind from that which he thought proper to publish in your Evening
PapeP2 of the 20th of July. I rejoice to find that he has not yet lost all his feelings, which I confess I before began to be apprehensive was the case. But my letter addressed to him in the same paper of the 26th ult. seems to have had a considerable effect upon him, notwithstanding the affected contempt with which he appears to treat it. With his usual art, indeed, he has drawn up his last letter as if he intended to publish another answer before he saw my last.
But no impartial person can suppose this. It must have been very ridiculous in him to have exposed himself by such a letter as that which was published in your paper of the 20th of July ult., if he had then intended to have published another containing the least appearance of argument.83
Mr. Wesley has discovered that I was induced to make 'so violent an attack upon the Primitive Physic' by the displeasure which I had conceived against him on account of his writing the Calm Address to the Colonies. In this he is totally mistaken. I meddle too little with politics to have been led to write against him by any such motives.
He says, 'Believe it who can.'Those who know me will easily believe it, and I flatter myself that my general conduct in life has been such
82 Here and on two later occasions the Gazetteer version specifies 'in Lloyd's Evening Post'.
83The London Chronicle version omits this first paragraph.
Appendix D as to entitle me to some credit with the public. Nor was I induced to write against him by my attachment to Mr. [Caleb] Evans or Mr.
[Augustus] Toplady. The one of those gentlemen I never saw, and the other I have not the pleasure of being much acquainted with.
My reason for mentioning Air. Evans's charge against Air. Wesley was that it affected, not his political sentiments, but his veracity as a man. And I believe it is not the opinion of any impartial person that a satisfactory answer to this charge has been published, either by Mr. [John] Fletcher or Mr. [Thomas] Olivers.
My motives for writing An Examination of Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic were truly assigned in that publication. I thought his book calculated to do essential injury to my fellow-creatures, and that I acted the part of a good member of society in pointing out its pernicious tendency. I am still of the same opinion, and have the satisfaction to have good reason to believe that the impartial public concur with me in sentiment.
I have charged Air. Wesley, in the 66th page of my Examination, with an artful insinuation in one of his letters, calculated for no other purpose but to deceive. Instead of answering this charge, he intimates that I am deficient in politeness towards him. I believe that throughout the whole affair I have written with full as much politeness as such a man deserved. Had I supposed it possible for a good man to have written such an answer to such charges against him as those brought in the Examination as was published by him in your paper of July the 20th ult., I should have answered him in a different style. But I thought it impossible for any well-intentioned man, in such circumstances, to have written in such a manner. I am still of the same opinion, and on this subject I have not met with a single person who has differed from me.
Mr. Wesley is displeased that I knew not readily where to find the cases to which he refers in two or three places in his Primitive
Physic, though he quotes no authorities. And indeed, it is not generally his method, in his publications, to acknowledge from whence he borrows his materials; for his character as a plagiary is well established.X4 But Mr. Wesley has such a knack at misrepresenting the cases which he may happen to derive from a good author, or states the facts in so awkward a manner, that it may well be doubted whether the original writers themselves, from whom he has, borrowed them, would know them again in his book. At least it can
84 A chief claim in Caleb Evans's attack upon JW's Calm Address was that it was simply a plagiarization of Samuel Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny.
Appendix D
hardly be considered as a mark of ignorance in another man not to know them again, however well he may be acquainted with the original authors. And indeed there is no man of extensive reading who does not forget many things that he has read. Nor is there perhaps any man in Europe, besides Mr. Wesley, who would charge another with ignorance, merely for not remembering every case that may have published in magazines. To obtain the reputation of knowledge with Mr. Wesley, it is necessary that a man should be a very diligent, exact, and retentive reader of those learned monthly publications.
As to [Thomas] Sydenham, he is an author entitled to the highest regard from every professor of the medical art. And I was no stranger to his having recommended chicken-broth in the cholera morbus. But it was only as a watery fluid to correct and dilute the bile, and not as a remedy for the disease, as Mr. Wesley ridiculously does. Dr. Sydenham advises as a medicine sixteen drops of liquid laudanum. Whereas Mr. Wesley, as another remedy, prescribes six grains of laudanum', by which he must mean solid opium, a prescrip
tion which would be fatal to ninety-nine persons out of a hundred.
When Mr. Wesley has recourse to a good author, it is not unusual with him to render what he borrow from him useless or pernicious, by his own absurdity and want of knowledge in that science to which he pretends.85
The last edition of Primitive Physic contains prescriptions that would kill those who should make use of them. With this Mr. Wesley has been some months publicly acquainted, and yet these pernicious books are now, to my knowledge, sold in London, not altered even with the pen. Had he been possessed of the least humanity, he would have taken care that this should not be the case. He would have reprinted those leaves, and called in those books that were in the hands of the booksellers which contained the dangerous prescriptions. But no gain was to be made of this. Though somewhat may possibly be got by the new edition, which we are now informed is in the press. And however pernicious the tendency of the book may be, the disinterested compiler will be abundantly gratified if it can be made to sell more and more. The honest frequenters of the Foundry will be carefully informed by Mr. Wesley, or his learned deputies if he should not be present himself, that when service is over it may be had at the door.
Upon the whole, without at present troubling the public with any
85 The concluding sentence of this paragraph is found only in the Gazetteer and London Chronicle.
Appendix D further observations upon this subject, it may be sufficient to observe that, notwithstanding all that Mr. Wesley has urged in his own vindication, or that of his book, I believe those who impartially attend to the many observations on the Primitive Physic contained in my Examination, to very few which Mr. Wesley even attempts to reply, will be convinced that his compilation is extremely injudicious, and of a very injurious tendency, and that it was a real service to the public to endeavour to put a stop to its dispersion. He indeed says himself that, in consequence of my Examination, in a new edition of his Primitive Physic, which he is now preparing for the press (and for a sale of which he hopes from the credulity of his followers), he shall omit forty or fifty remedies. He also says he shall guard others, and adopt several of my practical observations.86
It therefore affords me some satisfaction to find that if what I have written should not wholly prevent injudicious peopltfrom attending to Mr. Wesley's 'Primitive Physic', which as a medical compilation is unworthy of the least regard, yet I shall at least have been the means of rendering it less pernicious.
W. Hawes
N.B. As Mr. Wesley has been kind enough to prescribe for me in a postscript to his last, I will repay the civility by prescribing for him also in my turn, as I should be extremely sorry to have less benevolence than himself. I will take the liberty of recommending the following prescription, as what would be of unquestionable service to him. Take one ounce of veracity, half an ounce of modesty, one ounce of religion (unmixed with hypocrisy), and two ounces of honesty, the whole to be mixed up with a sufficient quantity of medical skill somewhat superior to that of a Moorfields quack, and to be taken once in twenty-four hours, with a large draught of warm water, cold water, tar-water, or red-hot flint-water (see the Primitive Physic, 180,
181, 182, 18387), which so ever may be most agreeable to the patient.
Source: published transcriptions in Lloyd's Evening Post 39 (Aug.
7-9, 1776), p. 140; London Chronicle (Aug. 8-10, 1776), 140; and Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Aug. 8, 1776), p. 2.88
86 Hawes added a note at this point quoting the entire last paragraph of Wesley's letter. s These are the first four remedies listed for 'The Colic (in a fit)' in the 1770 edn. of Primitive Physic.
88 We follow the Lloyd's Evening Post version, which was clearly the earliest; but note the significant variants and one key addition.
Appendix D 723
From 'A Methodist' to Editors of London Review August 16, 1776 Gentlemen, After the many instances you have given the public of your impartiality and candour; and, in some cases, even for that insulted and exploded sect, the 'Methodists', I am extremely surprized in looking over one of your late numbers at the very harsh expression by which you testify your disapprobation of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's
Primitive Physic. The author, you say, 'deserves neither more nor less than to be hanged. Surely, gentlemen, if you have seen that divine's letter to Mr. Hawes, printed in the newspapers, setting forth the still increasing sale of the above-mentioned tract, you must be convinced that it is not so pernicious a publication as the faculty represents it; unless you suppose people mad enough wilfully to poison themselves. The faculty have their interests to serve, as well as Mr. Wesley; and, as doctors differ, you will probably think proper to retract the severity of your censure—which, I can assure you, has given great offence to many of your other well-wishers; and to none more than to
Yours,
A Methodist [Editorial response:] We are sorry to give any of our well-wishers offence, and therefore, having read Mr. Wesley's letter to Mr. Hawes, and being too well convinced that many people are mad enough to poison themselves, we do readily retract the expression complained of; viz. 'that the author of the Primitive Physic deserves neither more nor less than to be hanged'; it being, on the contrary, our present opinion that, if he be the writer also of the letter in question and is not absolutely non-campos, hanging is too good for him.
Source: London Review Of English And Foreign Literature 4 (August 1776): 159.
From 'Squib' for the Gazetteer
Ye grave medical tribe, attend well to my call; Ye grave divines, politicians, and all.
Wesley's Primitive Physic is surely most able To cure all our ills—to make government stable:
He quotes old dull authors, collects their vagaries, Convicts beyond doubts, tho' himself often varies.
724 Appendix D
To high Church a most crafty zealot he came, But missing preferment (pray was he to blame?).
He soon thought perfection a practical scheme, To pleasure some few, and to get him a name;
This brought him to riches, to credit, to shame; For no mortal on earth can perfection e'er claim.
He's one day America's friend and defender, The next day as ready her rights to surrender.
This Tri-Arch: divine, politician, and quack, Is willing to doom free-born sons to the rack;
But all this he's unable to do, or confound The sons of those heroes, who in honour are bound
To defend those just laws, our country's clear rights, Our godlike forefathers bequeathed to our mights.
No cowardly offspring from Britons e'er sprung, No trio-faced parson such deeds ever sung;
For Britons are hardy, bold, generous and free, Despising all hypocrites of every degree.
But Wesley they say all our colics can cure; Drink water! Drink water! Oh, drink water that's pure;
Sure this is uncertain, tho' uncertain more civil Than sending of freemen in chains to the devil.
This meek gospel divine, this deep-learn'd politician, And Trio-Arch quack, must sure mend the nation.
This government's slave, and subtle defender, Can't persuade Yankee heroes their rights to surrender.
— Squib
Source: The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (August 7, 1776), p. 2.
From 'A Detester of Hypocrisy'
To that Fanatical, Political, Physical Enthusiast, Patriot, and Physician, the Reverend Mr. Wfes/eJy.
As in some country town we often find The draper, mercer, and the laceman join'd,
Appendix D 725
So, great monopolist, are found in thee, Myst'ries more weighty, and in number three.
Hail, holy mountebank! from whose weak stage Enthusiasm whines, who lately us'd to rage.89
Hail, great successor of the frantic mission!
Hail to thee, scruvy, pious politician!
Who stand'st with Satan's fav'rites on a level, And gratis get'st diploma from the devil.90
Thrice do we hail thee by thy new addition,
Pois'ner in print, and primitive physician.91
How often hast thou fill'd the ears and eyes Of gaping crowds with horror and surprise?
How oft, with hypocritic frenzy meet, Snuffled damnation in the publick street?
Each list'ner call'd half devil and half beast; Nor till thy saintship well was pelted, ceas'd.
O, matchless impudence! and close combin'd With ignorance, to sport with humankind!
Forever cursed be that fatal day
When first you learnt that trade—to preach and pray.
Fathers and mothers, widows, wives, till death, May rue the minute when you drew your breath.
Howr many idle vagrants hast thou made,92 Who else had liv'd upon a wholesome trade;
Who now their industry shall use no more, But to mislead a mob and swell thy store?
For ever cursed be that fatal day 89 Original note: 'Whoever has heard the deceased saint [Whitefield], and his present successor, will easily perceive the contrast between the bellowing vociferations of the squinting professor, and the drawling languor of this lank-hair'd retailer of perdition.'
90 Original note: 'For who but the devil could so harden a man's heart that it should permit him to publish and rejoice in the sale of a performance evidently calculated to put a few shillings into the pocket of the diabolical author at the expense of the healths, and perhaps the lives, of his fellow-creatures?'
91 Original note: 'Mr. Hawes has proved, in his very ingenious Examination of the Primitive Physic just published, that some of Mr. W[esley]'s prescriptions would absolutely kill those who were so weak as to make use of them.'
92This is a reference to Wesley's itinerant lay preachers.
Appendix D When first in politics you went astray,93 When such a wretched fool, so low a thing,
In print presum'd to dictate to his king; Then many a wretch in peace had slumber'd well,
And only fear'd thy visionary hell.
But doubly cursed be that dreadful day When to the press thy pamphlet made its way.
That anticlimax, what could make thee tread, Forsake the heart to tamper with the head?94
Art thou so dead to shame, so callous grown To all disgrace, the brethren's or thy own?
In vain thy predecessor tried to botch That vile—adventure of the lady's watch.95
Given for sale to sooth a widow's woe, And found within the holy man's bureau.
Hast thou so soon forgot the forty pounds Laid by against th' exciseman went his rounds?
The squinting wretch in vain a husband shunn'd, And what from Ruth he squeez'd, Tom made refund.
Hast thou so soon forgot thy own reproach, When late you whin'd and canted for a coach?
All your long service in the faith you told, And represented you was weak and old; Strok'd your lank hair, which then more flaccid hung,
And faith and spirit trembled on your tongue; Trembled for fear thy most audacious talk
Should not prevail, and thou be forc'd to walk.
93 Original note: 'The writer alludes to the Calm Address and other political matters lately published by Mr. Wfesley].'
94 Original note: 'On reflection it does not seem strange that he should prefer the body to the soul, for by his publication he has plainly evinced that where his own temporal interest comes in competition with the life of others, he prefers the former. Had the whole question been confined to others, it is most likely he cares for neither.'
95 Original note: 'This story [about Whitefield] is too well known to need a comment, as also the story of the frail brother who was detected at Bath in a crim. con.
[i.e., "criminal conversation," or adultery; a reference to James Wheatley] and, for the honour of the holy fraternity, ordered to decamp, which he did without beat of drum. The story of the forty pounds, the present apostle's great affection for a chariot, his w'hinings to obtain it, and the number of disciples he lost by it, are all too public in the neighbourhood of the saints to need further explanation.'
Appendix D
And wilt thou now, as impudent as base, Attempt to give the Faculty disgrace;96 Men of long practice, eminence, and knowledge,
Train'd up to physic, members of a college?
Does not thy canting give enough of wealth, But must thou likewise prey upon our health?
Poison the principles with doctrine vile, With drams of verdigrease our bowels spoil;97
And like the satyr, as in fable told, From the same breath at once blow hot and cold?98
Thank heaven thou shall not, for there still remain Who can and will thy wicked course restrain.
Art thou in vice, by practice, grown so bold, To thank opponents that thy poison sold,99
So wrapt in av'rice, lost to sober sense, To sell the peoples lives for eighteen pence?100
96 Original note: 'Mr. W[esley], in the preface of his Primitive Physic, speaks of physicians and apothecaries in the most illiberal and unmanly terms, as such language seemed necessary to promote the sale of his venomous and ignorant pamphlet. But happily Mr. Hawes has opened the eyes of the public, and is the only gentleman of the faculty that stood forth to support himself and brethren. He has undeniably proved the rashness, folly, and wickedness of this divine empiric, in attempting to impose upon the public the most horrid truth, which he calls a rational and easy method of curing most diseases. He might have said in some cases also certain, for the operation of some of the prescriptions would have been that neverfailing and decisive exhibition called death.''
97 Original note: 'One of his vile prescriptions is a dram or two of verdigrease; another, six grains of opium for a dose. The writer most earnestly requests every one who has the misfortune to be possessed of Mr. W[esley]'s book to read Mr.
Hawes's answer, as their health, nay even their lives, are much interested in this inquiry. He also submits it to the faculty whether it is expedient that an humble address be presented to his Majesty, through the hands of his physicians, setting forth the fatal consequences which may ensue from this pamphlet, and earnestly requesting, as he tenders the lives of his loving subjects and to deter others from the like offense, that the Primitive Physic be publicly burnt by the hands of the common hangman.'
98Original note: 'Mr. Wjesley] prescribes cold water, hot water, tar water, and flint water for the cholic. —Mr. Hawes says this unaccountable professor prescribes hot and cold remedies in the same breath. See his Examination, p. 32.'
"Original note: 'Mr. W[esley], July 24th, in Lloyd's Evening Post, very wickedly addressed Mr. Hawes, thanking him for his publication as it increased the sale of his pamphlet. Mr. Hawes answered this address July 26th in the same paper with that spirit and good sense which does him great honour.'
10uThe revised 17th edition of Primitive Physic rose in cost to eighteen pence.
Appendix D Thank heav'n thou canst not, while there lives a Hawes, And learned Pringle stamps him with applause.101
A Detester of Hypocrisy Source: published as a broadsheet in 1776 with no printer named.
This transcription is from a surviving copy in the British Library (shelfmark 1876.e.9.8). The exact time of publication is unclear, but it was after the exchange of letters in July 1776.
From William Hawes
[Strand] [c. January 1, 1777] To the Public, As Mr. Wesley has published another edition of his Primitive
Physic, though the numerous errors and absurdities of it have been clearly pointed out, Mr. Hawes, who is thoroughly convinced that it is still a book which can be of no real service whatever, either to the poor or to the rich, takes the liberty of earnestly recommending to the public his Examination of Mr. Wesley's publication, which will enable them to judge how little adapted the Primitive Physic is to be of any use, that it may be of the most mischievous consequences, and that nothing but that 'love of money which is the root of all evil'102 could have induced Mr. Wesley to a republication.
Mr. Hawes has, however, the satisfaction to reflect that he has been the means of rendering a bad book somewhat less pernicious.
In the new edition of Primitive Physic Mr. Wesley has omitted one hundred and eighty-four of his absurd remedies; he has paid more attention to the doses of medicines, and inserted a few of Mr.
Hawes's practical remarks, though without acknowledgment. But the book is still replete with absurdity and ignorance, and cannot be
101 Original note: 'The writer is well assured that Sir John Pringle [President of the Royal Society, and Physician-in-ordinary to the King] has spoke in the highest terms of Mr. Hawes's Examination of Mr. Wesley's Primitive Physic. But as the shafts of ridicule have often succeeded beyond more solid opposition, we have endeavoured to attack him from that quarter. There are few misfortunes without some alleviations; let us hope that this publication of Mr. W[esley], replete with evil, will in the end have a contrary effect. Mr. Hawes has checked its course. Let us indulge ourselves in the agreeable expectations that the many corroborating proofs of the doctor's possessing a mischievous head and wicked heart may open the eyes of some worthy person now misled by him, to the utter destruction of those three professions he now unwarrantably exercises—politics, quackery, and fanaticism.'
102Cf. 1 Tim. 6:10.
Appendix D
in the least beneficial to the sick, but on the contrary must be productive of great injury, especially in acute diseases, trying absurd remedies which may occasion the death of many persons who, if properly treated at first, would have speedily recovered.
Source'. Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (Jan. 4, 1777), p. 4; Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (Jan. 18, 1777), p. 3.
APPENDIX E
GLOSSARY OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
TERMS FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS,
INSTRUMENTS, MEASURES, AND
TREATMENTS
[drawn mainly from the Oxford English Dictionary] Abortion - in eighteenth-century this applied mainly to spontaneous abortions; i.e., miscarriages.
Acrimony - bitter pungency to the organs of taste or smell.
Ague - an acute or high fever, alternating with chills; or a disease characterized by such fever, especially when recurring periodically (often malaria).
Aliment - a general term for food or nourishment.
Anasarca - a dropsical affection of the subcutaneous tissue of part of the body, producing a very puffed appearance of the flesh.
Animal spirits - the (supposed) agent responsible for sensation and movement, originating in the brain and passing to and from the periphery of the body through the nerves.
Anodyne - a pain reducing (or analgesic) medicine.
Apoplexy - unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke.
Ascarides - a genus of intestinal worms; thread-worms.
Ascites - a collection of serous fluid in the peritoneal cavity; dropsy of the abdomen.
Asthma - a number of disorders involving difficulty of breathing.
Basilicon - a name given to several ointments supposed to possess 'sovereign' virtues.
Blister - anything applied to raise a blister (draw the 'humours' to the surface); a vesicatory.
Bolus - medicine of round shape adapted for swallowing, larger than an ordinary pill.
Bronchocele - a situation where a segment of bronchus is filled with mucus and completely enclosed so the mucus cannot drain out.
Appendix E Cachexy - a depraved condition of body, in which nutrition is everywhere defective.
Calcined - reduced to dry powder or ash by burning.
Cancer - used broadly of various types of non-healing sores or ulcers; including canker sores.
Canine appetite - a voracious hunger.
Cannula - a small reed or pipe, used to drain or introduce fluids.
Cataplasm - a poultice or plaster.
Cawl - the membranous layer of fatty tissue that covers and supports the intestines and organs in the lower abdominal area; i.e., omentum.
Cerecloth - a cloth smeared with wax, used as a plaster.
Chafing-dish - a vessel to hold burning charcoal or other fuel, for heating anything placed upon it.
Chilblain - small, itchy, painful lumps that develop on the skin, produced by exposure to cold temperatures.
Chincough - an epidemic distemper, especially of children, characterized by a violent and convulsive cough: now more commonly called whooping-cough.
Chlorosis - a disorder believed to occur almost exclusively in young, virginal women soon after puberty, characterized by a greenish pallor of the skin, cessation or irregularity of menstruation, and weakness; also called 'green sickness'.
Cholera morbus - combined diarrhoea and vomiting.
Choleric - a person having a predominance of choler among the bodily humours. Choler is one of the four cardinal humours, identified as bile (or as present within bile) and described as hot and dry in nature, and supposed when predominant to cause irritability or irascibility of temper.
Clyster - (JW initially spelled 'glyster') a medicine injected into the rectum, to empty or cleanse the bowels, to afford nutrition, etc.; an enema or a suppository.
Colic - a condition involving severe pains in the belly, due to various affections of the bowels or other parts.
Colic, bilious - bowel pain accompanied with vomiting green mucus; takes its name from connection to the gallbladder (source of bile); possibly a gallbladder attack.
Colic, dry - bowel pain not accompanied by diarrhoea and often limited urination; many cases likely owed to lead poisoning.
Colic, hysteric - pain in the pit of the stomach, accompanied with vomiting green mucus.
Colic, nervous - same as dry colic.
Appendix E 733
Colic, windy — bowel pain accompanied by significant passing of gas.
Conserve — a confectionary or medicinal preparation made from some part of a plant (as the flowers, leaves, roots, or fruit) preserved with sugar.
Consumption - any disease that causes wasting of the body; particularly tuberculosis.
Cordial — a medicine for stimulating, cheering, or invigorating the heart.
Costiveness - constipation.
Decoction - a liquor in which a substance, usually animal or vegetable, has been boiled, and in which the principles thus extracted are dissolved; specifically as a medicinal agent.
Diabetes - a disorder characterized by the passage of large quantities of urine or by incontinence of urine.
Diuretic - a medicine for inducing discharge of urine.
Dram (drachm) - in medical use, was 60 grains or 1/8 of an ounce.
Draught - the quantity of drink swallowed at one act of drinking.
Dropsy - an accumulation of watery fluid in the serous cavities or the connective tissue of the body; now called an edema.
Electuary - a medicinal substance mixed with honey or another sweet substance.
Emulsion - a milky liquid, consisting of water holding in suspension minute particles of oil or resin by the aid of some albuminous or gummy material.
Eye, pearl in - cataracts.
Falling sickness - epilepsy.
Felon - an inflamed sore, especially under or near the nail of a finger or toe; a small abscess or boil.
Fistula - an elongated pipe-like ulcer or abscess.
Flat-worm - a cestoid worm (e.g., Tcenia solium) that, when adult, infests the digestive canal of humans; i.e., tapeworm.
Flesh-brush - a brush used for rubbing the surface of the body, in order to excite the circulation.
Flooding - in pregnancy; to suffer a uterine haemorrhage.
Fluor albus - 'white flow'; a vaginal discharge; i.e., leucorrhoea.
Flux - diarrhoea; or other abnormally copious flows of blood, excrement, etc. from the bowels or other organs.
Appendix E Fomentation — application to the surface of the body either of flannels, etc. soaked in hot water, whether simple or medicated, or of any other warm, soft, medicinal substance.
Fumigate - treat by exposing to smoke or fumes.
Fundament - the orifice of the intestines, the anus.
Ganglion - a tumour or cyst, especially one filled with viscous fluid.
Gangrene - necrosis (death) of an area of tissue in the body, especially as a result of impairment of its blood supply, often accompanied by bacterial infection and putrefaction.
Gargarism - a liquid to gargle.
Gill - a measure for liquids, containing one fourth of a standard pint (or in some areas a half of a standard pint).
Glairy - adjective meaning viscid or slimy.
Gout - a constitutional disease occurring in paroxysms, usually hereditary and in male subjects; characterized by painful inflammation of the smaller joints, especially that of the great toe, and the deposition of sodium urate in the form of chalk-stones; it often spreads to the larger joints and the internal organs.
Gout, in the stomach - often related to lead poisoning.
Gravel - aggregations of urinary crystals which can be recognized as masses by the naked eye (as distinguished from sand); (also) the disease of which these are characteristic. 'Also popularly used to indicate pain or difficulty in passing urine with or without any deposit.'
Gravidation - pregnancy.
Green sickness - see Chlorosis.
Griping / Gripes - strong constriction or contraction (usually of the bowels).
Gutta serena - blindness for which there was no discernible cause (by eighteenth-century instruments); the eye looks normal.
Flectic fever - applied to that kind of fever w hich accompanies consumption or other wasting diseases, and is attended with flushed cheeks and hot dry skin.
Hemicrania - a headache confined to one side of the head.
Hysteria - functional disturbance of the nervous system, characterized by such disorders as anaesthesia, hyperaesthesia, convulsions, etc.; women being much more liable than men to this disorder, it was thought to be due to a disturbance of the uterus and its functions.
Appendix E 735 Iliac passion — pain associated with the ileum (part of the small intestine).
Imposthume - a purulent swelling or cyst in any part of the body; an abscess.
Inanition - exhaustion; particularly as resulting from want or insufficiency of nourishment.
Infusion - a dilute liquid extract obtained from a substance by soaking it with, or steeping it in, water.
The Itch - scabies; a contagious disease, in which the skin is covered with vesicles and pustules, accompanied by extreme irritation, now known to be produced by the itch-mite.
Jaundice - a morbid condition caused by obstruction of the bile, and characterized by yellowness of the conjunctiva, skin, fluids, and tissues, and by constipation, loss of appetite, and weakness.
Julep - often, simply a liquid sweetened with syrup or sugar, and used as a vehicle for medicine; sometimes, a medicated drink used as a comforting, or gently stimulating mixture.
Kibe - an ulcerated chilblain.
Kilderkin - a cask with the capacity of half a barrel.
King's evil - a skin disease; scrofula, or struma, a tuberculous swelling of the lymph glands, once popularly supposed to be curable by the touch of royalty.
Lachrymal fistula - plugged / infected tear duct.
Languor - a state of fatigue, inertia, or lethargy.
Lassitude - exhaustion.
Leprosy - any disease causing scaliness, loss of pigmentation, or scabbiness of the skin; now, specifically the chronic disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae.
Lethargy - a disorder characterized by morbid drowsiness or prolonged and unnatural sleep.
Linctus - a medicine to be licked up with the tongue.
Lippitude - soreness of the eyes; bleariness.
Loathing - specifically a strong distaste for food.
Lochia - fluid discharged from a woman's vagina after childbirth.
Looseness - mild diarrhoea.
Lues Venerea - 'bane of intercourse'; i.e., syphilis.
Lunacy - intermittent insanity, supposed by some to be brought about by changes of the moon.
Appendix E Mad dog - dog infected with rabies.
Malignant - potentially fatal; extremely severe.
Melancholy - ill temper, sullenness, brooding, anger; associated with an excess of black bile, one of the four cardinal humours, in the body.
Menses nimii - excessive flow in menstruation.
Milk, coagulated - mastitis; a breast infection inhibiting breast feeding.
Mithridate - any of various medicinal preparations, usually in the form of an electuary compounded of many ingredients, believed to be a universal antidote to poison or a panacea.
Mortification - death of a part of the body; i.e., gangrene.
Nettle-rash - a rash of itching red spots on the skin, resembling that caused by the sting of a nettle and caused by allergic reaction to food, etc.
Palsy - paralysis or paresis (weakness) of all or part of the body, sometimes with tremor.
Paralytic - not just full paralysis, but any impairment of normal movement, like tremors or shaking of the hand.
Paroxysm - an episode of increased acuteness or severity of a disease.
Peripneumony - pneumonia.
Pessary - a device, often ring-shaped, placed in the vagina to support a prolapsed or malpositioned uterus.
Phlegm - one of the four cardinal humours, described as cold and moist, an excess causing apathy; but also used specifically of bronchial mucus brought up by coughing.
Phlegmatic - characterized by an excess of the bodily humour phlegm; not easily excited to feeling or action, stolidly calm, self-possessed, imperturbable; (with pejorative connotation) sluggish, apathetic, lacking enthusiasm.
Piles - haemorrhoids; 'blind piles' are those not actively bleeding.
Pin and web - an opacity of the cornea; possibly due to a lesion or cataract.
Plague - an infectious disease characterized by high fever, initial involvement usually of lymph nodes or the lungs, haemorrhage, and shock, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, chiefly transmitted to humans from rodents (or other mammals) by fleas.
Appendix E
Plaster — a solid medicinal or emollient substance spread on a bandage or dressing and applied to the skin, often becoming adhesive at body temperature.
Pledget - a small, often medicated, compress or wad of lint, cotton wool, or other soft absorbent material for applying over a wound.
Pleurisy - pain in the chest or the side, especially when stabbing in nature and exacerbated by inspiration or coughing; technically caused by inflammation of the lining around the lung.
Pomatum - Latinized form of 'pomade'; i.e., a scented ointment.
Posset - a drink made from hot milk curdled with ale, wine, or other liquor, flavoured with sugar, herbs, spices, etc., and often drunk for medicinal purposes.
Poultice - a moist, usually heated mass of a substance with a soft, pasty consistency, applied to the skin, usually by means of a bandage or dressing, in order to promote healing, reduce swelling, relieve pain, etc.
Proud flesh - abundant or excessive granulation tissue associated with a healing wound.
Ptisan - a wholesome or medicinal drink (now spelled 'tisane').
Ptyalism - excessive salivation.
Pugil — a pinch or small handful.
Purge - a medication to excite either bowel movement or vomiting.
Putrid - rotten or in a state of discomposition.
Quinsy - inflammation or swelling of the throat or part of the throat; often tonsillitis or strep throat.
Raving - a fit or bout of delirium or madness.
Reins - the body region of the kidneys.
Rheum - watery or mucous secretions, especially as collecting in or dripping from the eyes, nose, or mouth.
Rheumatism - an abnormal flow or flux of humours into a part of the body, causing pain or stiffness in joints, muscles, or organs.
Rickets - a disease of children caused by vitamin D deficiency, which results in deficient mineralization of bone with skeletal deformity.
Ringworm - fungal infection of the keratinized layer of the skin or of the hair or nails, in some forms manifesting itself as circular patches of inflammation or broken hairs; assumed to be caused by worms.
Appendix E Rob - a syrup made by the concentration of fruit juice, usually by boiling and often with the addition of sugar, used especially for medicinal purposes.
Roundworm - a large, parasitic nematode worm, Ascaris lumbricoides, which has a rounded cross-section and is found in the intestines of humans.
Rupture - hernia, especially in the groan area.
Rupture, windy - a hernia distended by gas.
St. Anthony's fire - an intense skin rash or inflammation, such as from erysipelas or ergotism.
St. Vitus's dance - a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements primarily affecting the face, hands, and feet.
Sanguine - characterized by the predominance of blood over the other three humours, and indicated by a ruddy countenance and a courageous, hopeful, and amorous disposition.
Scald head - a head diseased with ringworm or some similar affliction.
Sciatica - pain in the hip.
Scirrhus - a hard tumour or swelling, typically not painful.
Scorbutic - symptomatic of or proceeding from scurvy.
Scruple - a third of a dram, or 20 grains.
Scurvy - a disease characterized by general debility of the body, extreme tenderness of the gums, foul breath, subcutaneous eruptions and pains in the limbs, induced by exposure and by a too liberal diet of salted foods; now recognized as due to insufficient ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in the diet.
Seton - a thread, piece of tape, or the like, drawn through a fold of skin so as to maintain an issue or opening for discharges.
Shingles - inflammation or infection of the skin circling the chest, especially when accompanied by heat and redness; Wesley attributed to a type of worm.
Smallpox - an acute infectious disease characterized by high fever, headache and backache, and a rash which affects especially the face and extremities and consists of pustules which heal with scarring.
Stomachic - a medicine for treating stomach disorders.
Stone - a hard morbid concretion in the body, esp. in the kidney or urinary bladder, or in the gallbladder.
Straitness - tightness of chest, shortness of breath.
Appendix E
Strangury - blockage or irritation at the base of the bladder, resulting in severe pain and a strong desire to urinate.
Sudorific - a preparation that promotes perspiration.
Suffocation — impeded respiration, causing distress but not necessarily death.
Suffusion — of eyes, watery or weeping eyes.
Suppuration - the formation or discharge of pus; the maturation of an abscess.
Surfeit - overindulgence in eating or drinking; gluttony.
Syncope - a deep or serious fainting.
Thrush - a disease, chiefly of infants, characterized by white vesicular specks on the inside of the mouth and throat, and on the lips and tongue; now known to be caused by a parasitic fungus.
Tincture - a solution, usually in alcohol, of some principle (like myrrh) used in medicine.
Tympany - swelling of the abdomen with air or gas.
Ulcer - an open sore attended with a secretion of pus or other morbid matter; often on the external parts of the body.
Uvula - Wesley uses for the entire soft palate in the mouth, not just the conic projection from the posterior edge of the soft palate.
Vapours - used, primarily in reference to women, for mental disorders such as hysteria, mania, depression, light-headedness, fainting, flush, etc., which were thought to be caused by internal emanations.
Ventricle - used for the stomach or digestive tract.
Vertigo - condition in which a person has a sensation of whirling, either of external objects or of themselves, and tends to lose equilibrium and consciousness.
Vesication - a blister or blistering.
Vigilia - insomnia.
Vomica - an abnormal pus-containing cavity, usually in a lung, caused by deterioration of tissue.
Vulnerary - an adjective indicating something that has healing properties; particularly used of herbs.
Wen - a sebaceous cyst.
White swelling - a form of swelling without redness; specifically: a) a tuberculous arthritis of a joint, or b) phlegmasia alba dolens, milk-leg, white-leg.
740 Appendix E
Whites, the - a thick, whitish discharge from the vagina or cervical canal; i.e., leucorrhoea.
Whitlow - a suppurative inflammatory sore or swelling in a finger or thumb.
Worm fever - a fever caused by the irritation of intestinal worms.
Worms - particularly in the digestive tract; roundworms and tapeworms.
APPENDIX F
GLOSSARY OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
NAMES OF MEDICINAL HERBS, MINERALS,
AND OTHER REMEDIES
[drawn mainly from the Oxford English Dictionary] Agaric (of the oak) - a bracket fungus that grows on oak trees.
Agrimony - any of various plants constituting the genus Agrimonia.
Alabaster - an ornamental stone consisting of a fine-grained, compact, translucent form of gypsum or calcite.
Alder - a European tree, Alnus glutinosa, common on riverbanks and damp woodland across the northern hemisphere.
Allheal - any of various plants reputed to be effective in treating a variety of conditions; including a) marsh betony, b) yarrow, c) mistletoe, d) self-heal, e) valerian.
Alum, burnt - an astringent mineral sal (hydrated double sulphate of aluminum and potassium), reduced to a dry powder by fire; typically used as a styptic.
Amaranth - a genus of ornamental plants (Amarantus) with coloured foliage, of which the Prince's Feather and Love-liesbleeding are species.
Amber - fossilized tree resin.
Amber, salt of - succinic acid.
Amber, syrup of - powdered amber mixed with succinic acid and opium; used as a sedative or anodyne.
Amber oil - powdered amber mixed with honey and oil of rose; for curing ear problems or dimming eyesight.
Ammoniacum - a gum-resin exuded from the stem of the perennial herb Dorema ammoniacum of the umbel family (Apiaceae); used as a compounding agent or cement.
Angelica - Angelica archangelica, commonly known as garden angelica or wild celery.
Aniseed - the seed of the anise, used as a carminative, and in the preparation of aniseed oil, etc.
Antimony, crude - the element Stibium, calcined and powdered.
Appendix F Antimony, ceruse of - crude antimony mixed with spirit of nitre, and distilled till no more fumes will rise.
Antimony, sulphur of - a natural occurring compound of antimony and sulphur.
Apple water - cider.
Aqua sulphurata - sulphur water; some dilution of sulphuric acid.
Arquebusade water - eau d'Arquebusade, a concoction containing numerous herbs made in Switzerland.
Arsesmart - a name of the plant Water-pepper (Polygonum hydropiper).
Asafoetida - a concreted resinous gum, procured in central Asia from the Narthex asafoetida and allied umbelliferous plants; used as an antispasmodic.
Asarabacca - the plant Asarum europceum, sometimes called Hazelwort; used as a purgative and emetic.
Aqua vitae - unrectified alcohol; or ardent spirits of the first distillation.
Balm - name of some fragrant garden herbs; the chief are Balm Gentle or Balm-mint (Melissa officinalis) and Bastard Balm
(Melittis melissophyllum).
Balm of Gilead - see balsam of Mecca.
Balsam (or balm) - an aromatic vegetable juice; or substances like sulphur dissolved in oil or turpentine.
Balsam of capivi - an oily resin of several species of Copaifiera, a genus of trees growing in South America and the West Indies.
Balsam of Mecca - a resin from the shrub then known as Balsamodendron opobalsamum (now more commonly Commiphora gileadensis) is also called Balsam of Gilead.
Balsam of Peru - a balsam derived from the tree Myroxylon balsamum var. pereirae.
Balsam of sulphur - made with oil of turpentine and brimstone.
Balsam of Tolu — a balsam derived from the tree Myroxylon balsamum.
Balsamic aether - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §9, receipt #7).
Barbados aloes - the gummy sap of Aloe barbadensis.
Barbados tar - the tar-like substance derived from bituminous coal, mined in Barbados.
Barley-sugar - a confection, usually in twisted sticks, made from sugar, by boiling in a decoction of barley.
Appendix F
Bay-salt — salt obtained in large crystals by slow evaporation; originally, from sea-water by the sun's heat.
Bear's-foot - popular name of various species of Hellebore, especially of the Black Hellebore (Hellebore fcetidus).
Bear's-foot, syrup of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §282, receipt #7).
Beef-tea - the juice of beef extracted by prolonged simmering in a very little water, used as a nutritious food for invalids.
Benzoin - a dry and brittle resinous substance, with a fragrant odour and slightly aromatic taste, obtained from the Styrax benzoin, a tree of Sumatra, Java, etc.
Betony (or wood betony) - a plant (Stachys betonica) of the Labiate order, having spiked purple flowers and ovate crenate leaves; betony plaster is made using its juice.
Betony, marsh - Stachys palustris.
Birthwort - the genus of shrubs Aristolochia.
Bitter-sweet — the woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, a common shrub plant in Britain.
Black soap - any of various types of dark-coloured soap—specifically: a) a soft soap made from alkali and animal blubber or fish oil; or b) a soap originating in Africa made from the ashes of certain leaves and bark together with oils such as shea butter, palm oil, or coconut oil.
Blackthorn - a Eurasian thorny shrub or small tree, Prunus spinosa.
Blue smalt - see smalt.
Bole armoniac - a soft friable fatty earth, usually of a pale red colour.
Borage - the common British species (Borago officinalis) has bright blue flowers, and stem and leaves covered with prickly hairs; esteemed as a cordial.
Boerhaave's fever-powder - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §105, receipt #10).
Box, oil of - made from the shrub boxwood; an anodyne.
Boxwood - a species of flowering plant, Buxus sempervirens.
Bramble — a rough prickly shrub; specifically the blackberry-bush (Rubus fruticosus).
Brimstone - sulphur.
Brine - water saturated with salt.
Bristol-water - water of warm springs at Clifton near Bristol, used medicinally.
Brooklime - a succulent herb (Veronica beccabunga) common on
744 Appendix F
the edges of ditches; used in teas or syrups for its mild diuretic and laxative properties.
Broom - a shrub, Sarothamnus scoparius, bearing large handsome yellow flowers; abundant on sandy banks, pastures, and heaths in Britain.
Brown paper - course paper, used for wrapping packages.
Buckbean — a water plant (Menyanthes trifoliata) common in bogs in Britain, thought to cure gout.
Burdock - a coarse weedy plant (Arctium lappa, and kindred species) with prickly flower-heads called burs, and large leaves like those of the dock; typically used as a diuretic.
Burdock, decoction of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §199, receipt #4).
Burnet - the popular name of plants belonging to the genera Sanguisorba and Poterium.
Butcher's broom - common name of Ruscus aculeatus, also called Knee Holly.
Butter of wax - a butyraceous oil, obtained from wax by distillation.
Calamint - a genus of aromatic herbs, Calamintha; particularly the common calamint, Calamintha officinalis.
Calamus aromaticus - the British herb Sweet Flag or Sweet Rush (Acorus calamus); used for its sedative, laxative, or diuretic properties.
Calomel - mercurous chloride, a preparation much used in medicine in the form of a white powder with a yellow tinge.
Camomile - an aromatic creeping herb (Anthemis nobilis) found on dry sandy commons in England, with downy leaves, and flowers white in the ray and yellow in the disk; the flowers were valued for their bitter and tonic properties.
Camphor - a whitish translucent volatile substance, with a bitter taste and strong odor, prepared by distillation and sublimation from Camphora officinarum, a tree indigenous to Java, Sumatra, Japan, etc. Often added to other remedies, then said to be
'camphorated'.
Cantharides - the dried beetle Cantharis vesicatoria or Spanish fly; used externally as a rubefacient and vesicant, internally as a diuretic.
Caprifolium - an old name for woodbine or honeysuckle.
Cardamom - a spice consisting of the seed-capsules of Elettaria cardamomum.
Appendix F 745
Carduus - any of the prickly herbaceous plants of the genus Carduus", or thistle.
Carduus benedictus - the 'blessed thistle' (Carbenia benedicta); used as a stimulant, diaphoretic, and emetic.
Castile soap - a fine hard soap made (orig., in Spain) with olive oil and soda; either the white or the mottled.
Celandine - Chelidonium majus\ sometimes called swallow-wort; its thick yellow juice was supposed to be a powerful remedy for weak sight.
Centaury, lesser - Centaurium erythraea, a plant of the gentian family; valued for reducing fever.
Ceruse - 'white lead', a compound of carbonate and hydrate of lead used as a white paint and for preparing medical ointments.
China-root - the thick fleshy root-stock of a shrubby climbing plant (Smilax china L.), closely akin to Sarsaparilla.
Chervil - a garden pot-herb (Anthriscus cerefolium, formerly Chcerophyllum sativum).
Chickweed - a small weedy plant, Stellaria media.
Chicory - the plant Cichorium intybus, with bright blue flowers, found wild in the south of England.
Cider whey - made by mixing equal parts of cider and milk (and sometimes also water), boiling it down and straining off any particulates.
Cinnabar - the red or crystalline form of mercuric sulphide; originally applied to native cinnabar, a rhombohedral mineral, usually of adamantine lustre.
Cinnabar, factitious - made by combining mercury and sulphur.
Cinquefoil - the plant Potentilla reptans.
Clary - a labiate plant, Salvia sclarea, cultivated in English gardens as a pot-herb.
Clivers - the climbing plant Galium aparine or Goosegrass, which adheres by its minute hooked bristles to hedges or shrubs, the clothes of passers-by, etc.
Cocculus indicus - the commercial name of the dried berries of Anamirta cocculus, a climbing plant found in Malabar and Ceylon.
Cochineal - a dye-stuff consisting of the dried bodies of the insect Coccus cacti, found on several species of cactus in Mexico and elsewhere; used as a dye and an antispasmodic.
Colewort, green with red veins - Swiss chard.
Colewort, red - red cabbage, Brassica capitata rubra.
Coltsfoot - the leaves of Tussilago farfara, a common weed in waste
Appendix F or clayey ground, with large spreading cordate leaves downy beneath, and yellow flowers.
Columbine - the English name for plants of the genus Aquilegia, especially the long-cultivated Aquilegia vulgaris, or common columbine.
Comfrey - the English name of Symphytum officinale, a tall plant, common on margins of streams and ditches, with rough leaves, and drooping clusters of yellowish-white or reddish-purple bellshaped flowers.
Corn poppy - see red corn poppy.
Cow-heel — the foot of a cow or ox stewed so as to form a jelly.
Crab's eyes - a round concretion found in the stomach of the crayfish and some other Crustacea, consisting mainly of carbonate of lime.
Cream of tartar - purified and crystallized potassium bitartrate.
Daffy's elixir - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §40, receipt #8; and after §288).
Damask rose - a species or variety of rose, supposed to have been originally brought from Damascus; originally the Rosa gallica var. damascena.
Dandelion - the well-known plant, Taraxacum dens-leonis.
Devil's-bitScorzoneroides autumnalis, a perennial herbaceous plant with dandelion-like yellow flowers; also called autumn hawkbit.
Diachylon, simple - or 'lead plaster'; an adhesive plaster made by boiling together litharge (lead oxide), olive oil, and water; prepared on sheets of linen as a sticking-plaster which adheres when heated.
Diachylon, compound - 'lead plaster' with the addition of gum ammoniac, galbanum, and sagapenum, dissolved with wine, and boiled to a consistency of honey.
Diacodium - syrup prepared from poppy-heads; used as an opiate.
Diapalma - a desiccating or detersive plaster composed of palm oil, litharge, and sulphate of zinc.
Diascordium - a medicine made of the dried leaves of Teucrium scordium, and other herbs.
Dock - a number of plants of the genus Rumex.
Dock, sharp-pointed - Rumex conglomerate.
Dog grass - any of several kinds of couch grass, specifically common couch, Elymus repens, and the closely related Elymus caninus, reputed to be eaten by dogs to produce vomiting.
Dracontia - Dracunculus vulgaris, a species of aroid known vari-
Appendix F
ously as the common dracunculus, dragon arum, and the black dragon. In Greece, the plant is called drakondia.
Dragon's blood - a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of plant genera.
Drams - distilled liquors like gin and rum; name came from typical serving size.
Elder - a low tree or shrub, Sambucus nigra (family Caprifoliacece), called, the common or black-berried Elder.
Elderberry - the berries of Sambucus nigra.
Elder-flowers - white flowers from the shrub Sambucus nigra.
Elecampane - a perennial plant, Horse-heal (Inula helenium), with very large yellow radiate flowers and bitter aromatic leaves and root; used as a tonic and stimulant.
Epsom salt - the salt (chiefly composed of magnesium sulphate) obtained from a mineral water native to Epsom, England.
Essence of bardana, Dr. Hill's - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §186, receipt #3).
Euphorbium - a gum resin obtained from certain succulent species of Euphorbia. It is an extremely acrid substance, formerly used as an emetic and purgative.
Eyebright - a European medicinal plant of the genus Euphrasia, used to treat eye disorders; also called euphrasy.
Felon-wort - the bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara; traditionally used to treat felons.
Fennel - a fragrant perennial plant (Fceniculum vulgare).
Fennel water - a spirituous liquor prepared from fennel seed.
Fig-tree - a tree of the genus Ficus, especially the Ficus carica.
Fixed air - carbonic dioxide; see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §227, receipt #4).
Flax-weed - Linaria vulgaris, or toad-flax.
Flea-bane - a name given to various plants, particularly of the genus Inula', especially Inula dysenterica and Inula pulicana.
Forge water, smith's - water in which heated irons have been dipped, as by a blacksmith.
Foxglove - the popular name of Digitalis purpurea.
Frankincense - an aromatic gum resin, yielded by trees of the genus Bosraellia.
French bean - any of various varieties of the haricot or kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), typically cultivated for their pods, which are eaten when green as a vegetable.
748 Appendix F
Fuller's earth - a fine-grained clay used in cleansing wool, and as an astringent.
Fumitory - a plant of the genus Fumaria, usually Fumaria officinalis.
Galangal - the aromatic rhizome of certain Asian plants of the genera Alpinia and Kaempfena, of the ginger family.
Galbanum - a gum resin obtained from certain Persian species of Ferula.
Gall - likely Wesley did not mean the secretion of the gall bladder, but was shortening a common name, 'gall of the earth', given to the lesser centaury (due to its bitterness).
Gamboge - a gum resin obtained from various trees of the genus Garcinia, used as a purgative.
Garden cress - a type of cress widely cultivated for its leaves, which have a tangy peppery flavour, Lepidium sativum.
Geneva spirit - gin.
Gentian-root - the root of the plant Gentiana lutea.
Germander - any of the plants constituting the genus Feucnum.
Gladdon - a popular name for the iris.
Glauber's salts - sodium sulphate; named after the one who first produced it in a lab, Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604-1670).
Goosegrass - see clivers.
Goulard's extract of lead - a solution of lead acetate and lead oxide used as an astringen. It was named after its introducer, Thomas
Goulard.
Grains of paradise - the seed capsules of Amomum meleguetta of Western Africa.
Gromwell - common name for any of the plants of the genus Lithospermum, characterized by hard stony seeds, which were used in medicine.
Ground-ivy - the herb ale-hoof, Nepeta glechoma or Glechoma hederacea, a common labiate plant having bluish-purple flowers and kidney-shaped leaves.
Ground-oak - a species of dwarf oak.
Groundsel - any plant belonging to the genus Senecio, esp. Senecio vulgaris; a common European weed.
Guaicum - a genus of trees and shrubs native to the West Indies and the warmer parts of America, especially Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum. The heartwood of these is used as a medicine, called 'lignum vitae' or 'Guaicum lignum'.
Appendix F
Gum ammoniac - is a gum-resin exuded from the stem of the perennial herb Dorema ammoniacum native to north Africa.
Gum arabic — a water-soluble gum exuded by certain acacias (especially Acacia Senegal).
Gum benjamin - a corruption of 'gum benzoin'; see benzoin.
Gum guaicum - a resin attained from Guaiacum officinale.
Gum storax - see storax.
Gum tacamahac - a resin yielded by a Mexican tree, Bur sera tomentosa.
Hairifa popular name for clivers.
Hartshorn — the substance obtained by rasping, slicing, or calcining the horns of harts (red deer); formerly a chief source of ammonia.
Hartshorn, salt of — carbonate of ammonia; smelling salts.
Hartshorn, spirit of - an aqueous solution of ammonia.
Haws — the fruit of a hawthorn bush.
Hazel - a small tree of the genus Corylus, having as its fruit a nut.
Heartsease — the wild pansy, Viola tricolor, or other species of viola.
Hellebore, black - Helleborus officinalis and Helleborus niger, a plant valued for its purgative powers; especially the roots.
Hellebore, white — Veratrum album, a plant valued for its purgative properties; typically used in a powder form.
Hemlock - Conium maculatum, is odoriferous and has purple spotted stalks; used as a sedative but poisonous in strong doses; common use is as a plaster, with pain relief properties.
Hemp - an annual herbaceous plant, Cannabis sativa.
Henbane - the common name of the annual plant Hyoscyamus mger, growing on waste ground, having dull yellow flowers streaked with purple, and narcotic and poisonous properties.
Hepatic aloes - liver-coloured or dark brownish-red aloes; Aloe socotrina.
Herb Robert - a common wild species of Crane's-bill or Geranium (G. robertianum).
Hiera picra - a purgative drug composed of aloes and canella bark, sometimes mixed with honey and other ingredients.
Hollyhock - the plant Althcea rosea; many varieties, with flowers of different tints of red, purple, yellow, and white, were cultivated in gardens.
Honeysuckle - broadly used of any of several herbaceous plants rich in nectar; especially red clover, Trifolium pratense, and white
750 Appendix F
clover, Trifolium repens; more specifically used of woodbine (see below).
Horehound - a labiate herb, Marrubium vulgare, having stem and leaves covered with white cottony pubescence; used as a remedy for coughs.
Horse-radish - a cruciferous plant (Cochlearia armoracia), with white flowers and broad rough leaves, commonly cultivated for its root.
Horsetail - the common name of the genus Equisetum, consisting of cryptogamous plants with hollow jointed stems, and whorls of slender branches at the joints.
Hound's-tongue - Cynoglossum officinale; also called dog's-tongue.
Houseleek - Sempervivum tectorum, a perennial plant with pink flowers and a thick stem and leaves.
Hungary water - an early alcohol-based perfume; the oldest surviving recipes call for distilling fresh rosemary (and possibly thyme) with strong brandy, while later formulations contain lavender, mint, sage, marjoram, costus, orange blossom, and lemon.
Hyssop - a small bushy aromatic herb, most commonly Hyssopus officinalis; used medicinally, especially in decoctions.
Ipecacuanha - the root of Cephaelis ipecacuanha, a South American small shrubby plant, which possesses emetic, diaphoretic, and purgative properties.
Iris - a genus of plants, the type of the natural order Iridacece.
Irish slate - an argillaceous slate containing ferric sulphate, used medicinally in the form of powder.
Isinglass - a firm whitish semitransparent substance (being a comparatively pure form of gelatin) obtained from the sounds or air-bladders of some fresh-water fishes, esp. the sturgeon.
Jack - a name for the pike; also for Caranx pisquetos and other carangoid fishes.
Jalap - a purgative drug obtained from the tuberous roots of Exogonium purga and some other convolvulaceous plants; the active principle is the resin contained in the tubers.
Jalap, tincture of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §142, receipt #6).
Jesuit's bark - see Peruvian bark.
Juniper-berry - bluish-black or purple berries on a number of species of evergreen shrubs and trees, genus Jumperus; the berries
Appendix F
have a pungent taste and yield a volatile oil used as a stimulant and diuretic; the oil can be concentrated as a conserve or rob.
Kermes mineral - or 'Chartrusian powder'; amorphous trisulphide of antimony, of a brilliant red colour.
Lapis calaminaris - calamine.
Laudanum - a name for various preparations in which opium is a main ingredient.
Laurel-leaves - leaves of the Bay-tree or Bay-laurel, Laurus nobilis.
Lavender - the plant Lavandula vera, a small shrub with small pale lilac-coloured flowers; an oil obtained by distillation of the blossoms used in medicine.
Lavender, spirit of - oil of lavender combined with alcohol.
Lavender cotton - a name for Ground cypress (Santolina chamcecyparissus).
Lead, Goulard's extract - a solution of lead acetate and lead oxide, used as an astringent.
Lead, red - a red oxide of lead, formed by exposing litharge to hot air.
Lead, white - a mixture of lead carbonate and hydrated lead oxide.
Lentisk - the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus).
Liquorice - the rhizome (also called liquorice-root) of the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra (see Spanish liquorice for the medicinal/ candy extract).
Lily - the flower, bulb, and roots of the white lily (Lilium candidum) were used internally as well as externally for therapeutic purposes.
Lime water - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §6, receipt #3; or §227, receipt #9).
Lingum vitae - see guaiacum.
Linseed - the seed of flax.
Litharge - protoxide of lead (PbO) prepared by exposing melted lead to a current of air.
Liverwort - the plant Marchantia polymorpha, which has lobed, liver-shaped leaves, and was thought to be effective against liver disorders.
Logwood - dry logs stored for fuel.
Lucatellus's balsam -a syrup made of olive oil, wax, and turpentine; coloured red by the addition of dragon's blood.
Lunar caustic - nitrate of silver, which burns and destroys living tissue when brought in contact with it.
Appendix F Mace - an aromatic spice consisting of the fleshy aril or covering surrounding the seed in the fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, dried and used (chiefly in powdered form) to flavour savoury dishes, sauces, etc. (the kernel of the seed being the source of nutmeg).
Madder - a herbaceous scrambling plant, Rubia tinctorum, cultivated particularly for the reddish-purple dye obtained from the root.
Madder root, decoction of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §10, receipt #10).
Madeira wine - a distilled or fortified wine made in the Madeira islands, off the coast of Portugal.
Magnesia alba - hydrated magnesium carbonate, a white powder used medicinally as an antacid and laxative.
Maidenhair - a fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris) with delicate, pale green, fan-shaped pinnules; syrup of maidenhair is made from a concentrate of its leaves, sweetened with sugar or honey and mixed with water or milk.
Mallow - a common European plant of waysides and waste places, Malva sylvestris; widespread in Britain.
Malt - barley or other grain prepared for brewing, distilling, or vinegar-making; especially by steeping, germinating, and kilndrying.
Marseilles vinegar - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §174, receipt #2).
Marsh mallow - the plant Althaea officinalis.
Manna - a dried, sweet exudate or gum produced by various plants when cut, damaged, or punctured; especially one rich in mannitol exuded from the branches of the manna ash.
Marigold - a plant with golden or bright yellow flowers, of the genus Calendula.
Marjoram - aromatic herbs of the genus Origanum.
Marum - a kind of thyme, Thymus mastichina.
Masterwort - Peucedanum ostruthium, a plant regarded as a panacea on account of the sudorific, diuretic, and other medicinal properties of its root.
Mastic - an aromatic gum or resin which exudes from the bark of the lentisk or mastic tree, Pistacia lentiscus.
Mead - an alcoholic liquor made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water.
Melilot - particularly the yellow melilot, characterized by trifoliate leaves and long racemes of small yellow flowers, which are dried and used in making plasters, poultices, etc.
Appendix F
Mercurius dulcis - mercurous chloride; see calomel.
Mercury - a metallic element which is a heavy, silvery-white liquid at room temperature.
Mint - any of various aromatic plants constituting the genus Mentha.
Mistletoe - a yellowish-green hemiparasitic shrub, Viscum album.
Monk's rhubarb — either of two species of dock formerly grown as medicinal plants or pot-herbs, (originally) patience dock, Rumex patientia, and (in later use) Rumex pseudoalpinus.
Mother of thyme — wild thyme, Thymus polytrichus; or in some regions, basil thyme, Acinos arvensis.
Motherwort - the Eurasian herbaceous plant Leonurus cardiaca, used to treat heart diseases.
Mountain sage — wood sage, Teucrium scorodonia.
Mountain wine — a distilled or fortified sweet wine produced in Malaga, Spain.
Musk - a reddish brown substance with a strong, persistent odour secreted by a gland of the male musk deer, esp. Moschus moschiferus.
Mustard - any of the yellow-flowered annual plants of the family Brassicaceae.
Myrrh - a bitter, aromatic gum resin exuded by various Arabian and African trees of the genus Commiphora.
Neat's-foot oil - oil made from boiled cow heel.
Negus - a drink made from wine (usually port or sherry) mixed with hot water, sweetened with sugar and sometimes flavoured.
Nettles - any of various plants with inconspicuous green flowers and (usually) stinging hairs that constitute the genus Urtica.
Nitre - originally natron, native sodium carbonate (obs.). In later use, sodium or potassium nitrate.
Norway tar - a volatile oil derived from distilling the sap of pine trees.
Nutritum - an ointment consisting of an emulsion of an oil and vinegar; especially one containing litharge.
Oil of paper - made by mixing ashes of burned paper with olive oil.
Olibanum - an aromatic gum resin obtained from trees of the North African genus Boswellia.
Oxycrate - a mixture of vinegar and water, used as a medicinal preparation.
Oxymel - a medicinal drink or syrup made of vinegar and honey, sometimes with other ingredients.
Appendix F Panada - a dish consisting of bread boiled to a pulp in water, sometimes flavoured with sugar, currants, nutmeg, or other ingredients.
Pellitory of Spain - any of several plants with pungent-tasting leaves or roots, especially a daisy-like plant of North African origin, Anacyclus pyrethrum.
Pellitory of the wall - either Parietana officinalis or Panetaria judaica, which tend to grow upon or at the foot of walls.
Pennyroyal - the leaves from a creeping mint, Mentha pulegium, native to damp heath.
Pepperwort — Lepidium latifolium, a plant cultivated for its pungent leaves and root.
Peruvian bark - the bark of various species of the Cinchona tree, from which quinine is now procured; formerly ground into powder and taken to relieve a fever.
Phillyrea - either of two evergreen shrubs having dark green leaves and inconspicuous, greenish-white flowers; Phillyrea latifolia and Phillyrea angustifolia.
Pimpernel - any of several plants of the genus Pimpinella; especially burnet saxifrage, Pimpinella saxifraga.
Pippin - a kind of sweet apple.
Plantain - any of various low-growing plants constituting the genus Plantago.
Plumbago - spotted persicaria, Persicaria maculosa.
Poppy - often referring specifically to the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum.
Port - a distilled or fortified wine made in Portugal.
Primrose - an early-flowering European primula, Primula vulgaris, found in woods, hedges, etc.
Proof spirit - distilled alcoholic liquor that is of proof strength.
Puffballs - various gasteromycete fungi characterized by a globose fruiting body which on the rupturing of the outer wall at maturity discharges a cloud of powdery spores.
Purslane - a low-growing succulent plant, Portulaca oleracea, with small yellow flowers in the axils of its fleshy leaves, w hich is widely grown as a salad vegetable or herb.
Quick grass - any of several weedy grasses, especially couch grass, Elymus repens.
Quickbeam - any of several trees of the genus Sorbus, especially the European rowan (Sorbus acuparia).
Quicklime - lime which has not yet been slaked; calcium oxide.
Appendix F
Quicksilver - see mercury.
Quince - the tree Cydonia oblonga which produces a pear-shaped fruit; the juice of the fruit, the seeds found within the fruit, and the leaves were used medicinally.
Raisin of the sun - grapes allowed to continue on the vines until the clusters were dried by the heat of the autumn; or, at minimum, raisins dried only by sunlight, without use of lye or other agents.
Ranunculus - meadow plants with palmate leaves and bright yellow flowers, members of the family Ranunculaceae; especially buttercups.
Rattlesnake root - Polygala senega, a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family.
Red coral - an arborescent species of coral, found in the Red Sea and Mediterranean.
Red corn poppy - Papaver rhoeas, a common weed in Europe.
Red nettle - a form of common nettle, Urtica dioica, or Roman nettle, Urtica pilulifera, with reddish parts.
Red sand - common name for crystalline form of lithic acid, found in urine.
Ribwort - a Eurasian plantain commonly found in grassland, Plantago lanceolata, which has lanceolate leaves with prominent ribs; also called narrow-leaved plantain.
Rock alum - crystalline alum of high purity, esp. that prepared from Italian alunite.
Rose conserve - made by pounding freshly-gathered rose petals with sugar.
Rose water - made by seeping rose petals in water.
Rosemary - an aromatic evergreen shrub.
Rosin, (yellow) - distillate of turpentine.
Rosin, white - distillate of white turpentine.
Rue - any of various dwarf shrubs in the genus Ruta, especially Ruta graveolens, which has yellow flowers and bitter, strongly scented feathery leaves.
St. John's-wort - any plant of the genus Hypericum; especially Hypericum perforatum, the flowers and foliage of which are used in herbal medicines.
Saffron — an orange-red product consisting of the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus; used as a cordial and sudorific.
Sage - an aromatic herb of the genus Salvia; 'red sage' is Salvia miltiorrhiza; 'white sage' is Salvia apiana.
Appendix F Sal ammoniac - i.e., salt of Ammon, a hard white opaque crystalline salt, ammonium chloride.
Sal-prunella - potassium nitrate fused and cast in balls, cakes, or sticks; for soar throats.
Sal volatile - ammonium carbonate.
Salep - (or saloup) a nutritive meal, starch, or jelly made from the dried tubers of various orchidaceous plants, chiefly those of the genus Orchis.
Saltpetre - potassium nitrate.
Sarsaparilla - the dried roots of plants of the various species of Smilacece; especially Jamaica sarsaparilla, Snulax officinalis', used in a medicinal preparation.
Sassafras - a small tree native in North America, Sassafras officinale, also called Sassafras Laurel and Ague-tree; both the dried bark and the root were used in medical concoctions.
Savin - a small bushy juniper, Jumperus sabina; oil from its berries or young shoots was used medicinally.
Savory - any plant of the genus Satureja, comprising aromatic herbs and low shrubs from the Mediterranean and south-west Asia.
Saxifrage - any plant of the genus Saxifraga, especially Saxifraga granulat a.
Scammony - a gum-resin obtained from the tuberus roots of Convolvulus scammonia, used as a strong purgative; also, the dried tuberous root from which the drug is prepared.
Scarlet cloth — the colour red was for a time believed to have curative powers; particularly associated with blood diseases or red rashes like thrush.
Scurvy-grass - a cruciferous plant, Cochlearia officinalis, believed to possess anti-scorbutic properties.
Scurvy-grass, garden - Cochlearia hortensis.
Sea-wormwood - the species of wormwood Artemisia maritima.
Self-heal - a name for various plants believed to have great healing properties, esp. Prunella vulgaris, Sanicula europcea, and formerly
Pimpinella saxifraga.
Senna - the dried leaflets of various species of Cassia, used as a cathartic and emetic.
Sensitive plant - the plant Mimosa pudica, which has leaflets that fold together when touched.
Seville orange — the fruit of Citrus aurantium, whose pulp is bitter and which is now used chiefly for making marmalade.
Silverweed - a common wayside plant of the genus Potentilla (P. anserina) with prostrate rooting stems and silvery leaves; goosegrass or wild tansy.
Appendix F
Small beer - a beer/ale that contains very little alcohol, typically about 0.75%; it was sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like.
Smallage — any of several kinds of celery or parsley; especially wild celery, Apium graveolens.
Smalt - cobalt oxide.
Snake-root — a medicinal preparation made from the root of Polygala senega or Aristolochia serpentaria.
Soapwort — one or other of the herbaceous plants belonging to the genus Saponaria.
Socotrine aloes - a drug prepared from the juice of the Aloe socotrina, and originally obtained from the island of Socotra.
Solomon's seal - a plant, Polygonatum multiflorum, the stems of which bear on the upper part broad sessile leaves and drooping green and white flowers.
Sorrel - one or other of certain small perennial plants belonging to the genus Rumex.
Southernwood - a hardy southern European shrub, Artemisia abrotanum.
Sow-bread — Cyclamen europaeum, a plant whose fleshy tuberous root-stocks are eaten by swine.
Sow-thistle - one or other of the species of Sonchus; common European weeds characterized by their sharply-toothed thistle-like leaves and milky juice.
Spanish liquorice - made from the evaporated juice of the root of the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra, commonly sold in black cylindrical sticks.
Spanish snuff - a very fine red or yellow snuff, mixed with an oily earth.
Spearmint - the common garden mint, Mentha viridis.
Speedwell - one or other species of Veronica, an extensive genus of small herbaceous plants with leafy stems and small blue (rarely pink or white) flowers.
Spermaceti - a liquid wax derived from sperm whales.
Spirit of salt - hydrochloric acid.
Spleenwort - one or other of various ferns belonging to the genus Asplenium.
Spurge - one or other of several species of plants belonging to the extensive genus Euphorbia, many of which are characterized by an acrid milky juice possessing purgative or medicinal properties.
Squill - the bulbous-rooted sea-shore plant Scilia maritima; the sea-onion.
Appendix F Stavesacre - a plant of the species Delphinium staphisagria; the seeds of this plant, used to destroy vermin, and formerly as an emetic.
Steel, salt ofusually, iron chloride (but used also for the sulphate or other salts of iron).
Stomach tincture - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §221, receipt #5).
Storax - a fragrant gum-resin from the tree Styrax officinalis; often sold in small tear-shaped drops called 'storax in tears'.
Stoughton's drops - see Wesley's guide for preparing (after PP, §288).
Succory - the plant Cichonum intybus.
Sulphur vivum - naturally occurring sulphur, a grayish stone.
Sulphur, flower of - a very fine form of bright yellow sulphur powder obtained by sublimation.
Sulphur, oil of - sulphuric acid.
Sulphur, spirit of - sulphuric acid.
Sweetmeats - sweet food, as sugared cakes or pastry, confectionary; preserved or candied fruits, sugared nuts.
Tamarinds - the fruit of the tree Tamarindus indica, a brown pod containing one to twelve seeds embedded in a soft brown or reddish-black acid pulp; the pulp was valued for its medicinal qualities.
Tansy - an erect herbaceous plant, Tanacetum vulgare.
Tar-water - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §6, receipt #1).
Tartar, salt of - the liquid obtained by dry distillation of tartar; it contains pyrotartaric acid and other substances.
Tartar-emetic - common name in pharmacy of potassioantimonious tartrate.
Thistle - the common name of the prickly herbaceous plants of the genus Carduus.
Three-leaved grass - an old name for clover.
Toast - a slice or piece of bread browned at the fire, then put in wine, water, or other beverage.
Tonquin medicine - a mixture of cinnabar and musk.
Treacle - a medicinal compound, usually a kind of salve, composed of many ingredients, supposed to protect against or serve as an antidote to venomous bites, poisons generally, and malignant disease.
Treacle beer - a light ale or beer brewed from treacle and water.
Treacle, poor man's - or Theriaca pauperum; some equate with
Appendix F
garlic; in other collections it is a paste made from juniper berries.
Treacle, Venice - a famous and expensive form of treacle, containing up to sixty different ingredients and purported to possess universal protective powers.
Trefoil - a plant of the genus Trifolium, having triple leaves; a clover—commonly applied to species or varieties other (esp. smaller) than those cultivated under the name of'clover'.
Turbith mineral - a cathartic drug prepared from the root of East Indian jalap, Ipomoea turpethum, an Indian and Australian plant.
Turlington's balsam - see Wesley's guide for preparing (after PP, §288).
Tutty - an impure oxide of zinc obtained from the flues of smelting furnaces, or a similar substance occurring as a native mineral, used chiefly as a polishing powder.
Valerian - Valeriana officinalis.
Valerian root, tincture of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §161, receipt #1).
Varnish, black - made from East Indian tree Melanorrhoea usitatissima.
Verdigris - basic acetate of copper.
Venice soap - a mottled soap made with olive oil and soda, with a little sulphate of iron in solution, or sulphate of zinc.
Venice turpentine - made by distilling the resin of the larch tree (Larix occidentalism used for waterproofing horse hoofs.
Verjuice - the acid juice of green or unripe grapes, crab-apples, or other sour fruit, expressed and formed into a liquor.
Virginia snake-root - see snake-root.
Vitriol - sulphuric acid.
Vitriol, blue - deep blue, crystalline copper sulphate pentahydrate.
Vitriol, elixir of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §9, receipt #6).
Vitriol, Mynsicht's elixir of - aromatic sulphuric acid with several other ingredients, including cinnamon.
Vitriol, Roman - same as blue vitriol.
Vitriol, white - zinc sulphate.
Wake-robin - also called cuckoo-pint, or Lords-and-Ladies; Aracece maculatum is a species of the family arum native to Britain.
Appendix F Wall-July-flower - Cheiranthus cheiri, a plant growing wild on old walls, on rocks, in quarries, etc., and cultivated in gardens for its fragrant flowers.
Wall rue - a small fern, Asplemum ruta-muraria.
Walnut - the common walnut-tree, Juglans regia.
Water dock — Rumex hydrolapathum] also called 'great water dock'.
Water dock, decoction of - see Wesley's guide for preparing (PP, §199, receipt #17).
Water fern - any of various ferns often found growing near water; like the royal fern, Osmunda regalis.
Water gruel - thin liquid food of oatmeal or other meal boiled in water.
Water lily - any of various aquatic plants constituting the family Nymphaeaceae, having large, rounded floating leaves and showy emergent flowers.
Water parsnip - any of the aquatic or semiaquatic umbelliferous plants of the genus Slum] especially Slum suave.
Watercress - any of several hardy perennial aquatic or semiaquatic plants of the genus Nasturtium.
Whey - in combinations like celery-whey, cider-whey, or mustard-whey; milk forced to curdle or coagulate by the added ingredient.
White bryony - Bryonia alba is a vigorous vine in the family that includes squashes and melons, from Europe and Northern
Iran. Other common names include English mandrake and wild hops.
White copperas - protosulphate of zinc.
Whitethorn - the common hawthorn of Europe, Crataegus monogyna.
Wild ash - any of several trees of the genus Sorbus] especially the European rowan (Sorbus acuparia)] also called quickbeam.
Wood betony - see betony.
Wood sage - the perennial herb Teucrium scorodonia.
Wood-sorrel - the common name of Oxalis acetosella.
Woodbine - a name for various plants of a climbing habit; in early use, convolvulus and ivy; or particularly honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum.
Wormseed - a name for the dried flower heads of various plants, as swine's fennel or sulphurwort, which were assumed to have the ability to expel parasitic worms.
Wormwood — the plant Artemisia absinthium, proverbial for its bitter taste; the leaves and tops are distilled to yield an oil or syrup.
Appendix F
Yarrow — the common name of the herb Achillea millefolium.
Yellow water-flower-de-luce - Iris pseudacorus.
Zedoary - the aromatic tuberous root of one or more species of Curcuma, of the East Indies.
Zibethum occidental - human faeces.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WESLEY'S KNOWN
READING AND SOURCES ON MEDICINE
Adams, George (1750—95). An Essay on Electricity; explaining the theory and practice of that useful science, and the mode of applying it to medical purposes. London: for the author, 1784. read: Diary, July 22, 1788, 24:252 in this edn.
Allen, John (1660?—1741). Dr. Allens Synopsis Medicinae; or, A Brief and General Collection of the Whole Practice of Physick.
Containing the opinions and judgments of the most celebrated authors, concerning diseases, their causes and remedies. 2 vols.
London: Pemberton & Meadows, 1730. own: Michaelmas 1731 Inventory (MARC, MA 1977/503, vol. 18, pp. 114—17) assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, &
Newcastle, Minutes, Aug. 3, 1745, 10:163 in this edn.
Banyer, Henry (fl. 1718-36). Pharmacopoia Pauperum. London: T.
Warner, 1718. source: Primitive Physic (3 receipts) Berdmore, Thomas (1740-85). A Treatise on Disorders and Deformities of the Teeth and Gums. London: for the author, 1768. source: Primitive Physic, §244 Berkeley, George (1685-1753). Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water, and divers other subjects connected together and arising one from another. London: Hitch and Davis, 1744. [The title used in Dublin, and starting with the 2nd edn. in London began: Siris; A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions ....] cite: Desideratum, Preface, §4 source: several receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive
Physic source: Desideratum, II. 1 (quoting p. 66) Berkeley, George (1685-1753). A Letter to Tjhomas] Prior, Esq; from the author of 'Siris'. Containing some Farther Remarks on the Virtues of Tar-water. London: printed for M. Cooper,
1744. source: several receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive Physic
Bibliography Boerhaave, Herman, M.D. (1688-1738). Academical Lectures on the Theory of Physic. London: W. Innys 1742. likely cite: Primitive Physic, Preface, §14
Boyle, Robert (1627-91). Medicinal Experiments; or, A Collection of Choice and Safe Remedies, for the most part Simple and easily Prepared, very useful in Families, and fitted for the service of Country People. ...In Three Parts. Containing above Five
Hundred Choice Receipts, 4th edn., enlarged. London: Smith and Taylor, 1703. [Clear JW using at least 4th edn., because includes one remedy from a supplement integrated into that edition.] source: numerous receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive Physic Boyle, Robert (1627-91). De Specificorum Remediorum cum Corpusculari Philosophia Concordia; cui accessit Dissertatio de vana simplicium medicamentorum utilitate et usu. London: Samuel
Smith, 1686 [English: Of the Reconcilableness of Specific Medicines to the Corpuscular Philosophy; to which is annexed a discourse about the advantages of the use of simple medicines.
London: Samuel Smith, 1685]. read: Oxford diary, July 9, 1725 (vol. 17 in this edn.)
Boyle, Robert (1627-91). Some Receipts of Medicines, For the most part Parable and Simple. Sent to a Friend in America, London:
Printed in the Year, 1688. [This was later part of volume 1 of Medicinal Experiments above.] read: JW to the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post, c. Jan. 23,
1776 (see Appendix D) Buchan, William (1729-1805). Domestic Medicine: or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple
Medicines. 2nd edn. with considerable additions. London:
Strahan & Cadell, 1772. source: several receipts in Primitive Physic (starting in 1780)
Cheyne, George (1673-1743). The English Malady ; or, A Treatise of Nervous Diseases of all Kinds, as spleen, vapours, lowness of spirits, hypochodriacal, and hysterical distempers. London:
George Strahan, 1733. read: Oxford diary, Sept. 9, 1734 (vol. 17 in this edn.; possible—just says 'read Cheyne') cite: 'Thoughts on Nervous Disorders', §6 source: 'A Wonderful Account given by Dr. Cheyne', AM 9
Bibliography
Cheyne, George (1671-1743). An Essay on Health and Long Life.
London: Printed for George Strahan, 1724. comment on: JW to Susanna Wesley, Nov. 1, 1724, 25:151 in this edn. assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, &
Newcastle, Minutes, Aug. 3, 1745, 10:164 in this edn. abridge: Primitive Physic, Preface, §16 Cheyne, George (1671—1743). The Natural Method of Curing the Diseases of the Body and Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body. London: Printed for George Strahan, 1742. comment on: Journal, Mar. 12, 1742, 19:256 in this edn. assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, &
Newcastle, Minutes, Aug. 3, 1745, 10:164 in this edn.
Cheyne, George (1671-1743). A New Theory of Acute and Slow Continued Fevers. To which is prefixed, An Essay Concerning the Improvements of the Theory of Medicine. London: George
Strahan, 1702. read: Oxford diary, Nov. 5, 1725 (vol. 17 in this edn.) Cook, John (c. 1705-77). 'Letter to the Editor [on whooping cough]', London Magazine 33 (1764): 573-76. source: Primitive Physic, §32, receipt #7
Cornaro, Luigi (1475-1566). Sure and Certain Methods of Attaining a Long and Healthful Life. Translated by W. Jones.
London: Leigh & Midwinter, 1702. read: Oxford diary, Dec. 7, 1732 (vol. 17 in this edn.)
Digby, Kenelm (1603-65). Choice and Experimental Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery. London: for the author, 1668. read: Oxford diary, Nov. 9, 1726 (vol. 17 in this edn.) own: Michaelmas 1731 Inventory (MARC, MA 1977/503, vol. 18, pp. 114-17) source: several receipts in Primitive Physic
Dover, Thomas. The Ancient Physicians Legacy to his Country. 5th edn. with additions. London: Bettesworth & Hitch, 1733.
[Wesley cites receipts found first in this edition], cite: Primitive Physic, Preface, §12; JW to the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post, c. Jan. 23, 1776 (see Appendix D) source: numerous receipts in Primitive Physic
Drake, James (1667-1707). Anthropologia Nova; or, A New System of Anatomy. 2 vols. London: Smith & Walford, 1707. own: Michaelmas 1731 Inventory (MARC, MA 1977/503, vol. 18, pp. 114-17) read: Diary, Mar. 8-18, 1736, 18:367-69 in this edn.
Bibliography assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, & Newcastle, Minutes, Aug. 3, 1745, 10:163 in this edn.
Else, Joseph (d. 1780). Essay on the Cure of the Hydrocele of the Unica Vaginalis. London: John Wilkie, 1770. comment on: Journal, June 30, 1772, 22:339 in this edn.
Floyer, John (1649-1734). Psychrolousia: or, the History of Cold Bathing. ... To which is Added, An Appendix. By Dr. Edward
Baynard, Fellow of the College of Physicians. 4th edn. London: William Innys, 1715. [first edn. 1702; Wesley draws on material appearing first in 4th edn. in Collection of Receipts]. cite: Desideratum, Preface, §4; JW to the Editor of Lloyd's
Evening Post, c. Jan. 23, 1776 (see Appendix D); JW to William Hawes, July 27, 1776 (see Appendix D) source: several receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive
Physic Fothergill, John (1712-80). An Account of the Sore Throat attended with Ulcers; a disease which hath of late years appeared in this city, and in several parts of the nation. London: C. Davis,
1748. cite: Journal, Nov. 13, 1753, 20:481 in this edn.
Fuller, Francis (1670—1706). Medicina gymnastica; or, A Treatise concerning the Power of Exercise with respect to the Animal
Economy, and the Great Necessity of it in the Cure of several Distempers. London: Knaplock, 1705. read: Oxford diary, Jan. 5-6, 173 (vol. 17 in this edn.)
Godfrey, Boyle (c. 1685-1756) A Treasure of Useful Discoveries.
Dublin: for the author, 1746. source: Primitive Physic, §177, receipt #1 (infamous prescription of 'one to two drams of distilled verdigris)
Hancocke, John (d. 1728). Febrifugum magnum; or, Common water the best cure for fevers, and probably for the plague. 7th edn. with additions. London: Roberts & Halsey, 1724. [JW cites from additions in this edition] cite: Desideratum, Preface, §4 source: several receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive
Physic Hawes, William (1736—1808). An Examination of Mr. John Wesley's Primitive Physic', showing that a great number of the prescriptions therein contained are founded on ignorance of the medical art, and of the power and operations of medicines; and that it is a publication calculated to do essential injury to the health of those persons who may place confidence in it. London: Dodsley, 1776.
Bibliography reply: JW, 'To Mr. Hawes, Apothecary and Critic', July 20, 1776 (see Appendix D) source: several deletions and revisions in Primitive Physic,
1776-78 Hill, John (1714?—75). The Construction of the Nerves, and. Causes of Nervous Disorders: With a Regimen and Medicines which have Proved Successful. 2nd edn. London: R. Baldwin, 1758. source: Primitive Physic, §161 Hodges, Nathaniel (1629-88). Loimologia; or an Historical Account of the Plague in London in 1665. Translated by John Quincy.
London: Bell, 1720. comment on: Journal, Aug. 16, 1748, 20:239 in this edn.
Hoffmann, Friedrich (1660—1742). Opera omnia Physico-Medica. 6 vols. Geneva: DeTournes, 1748. own: Methodist Archives-Rvlands [MAW CW330-32] cite: 'Extract from Cadogan On the Gout\ §4
Huxham, John (1692-1768). An Essay on Fevers, and Their Various Kinds, as Depending on Different Constitutions of the Blood; with dissertations on slow nervous fevers; on putrid, pestilential, spotted fevers; on the small pox; and on pleurisies and penpneumonies. London: S. Austen, 1750. cite: Primitive Physic, §176, §205 Kettilby, Mary (fl. 1720-30). A Collection of above Three Hundred
Receipts in Cookery, Physick, and Surgery; for the use of all Good Wives, Tender Mothers, and Careful Nurses. 4th edn.
London: Richard Wilkin, 1728 [JW uses some receipts not found in 1st edn.; this edn numbered consecutively, so easiest to cite]. source: a few receipts in Collection of Receipts and Primitive
Physic Le Clerc, Daniel (1652-1728). The History of Physick; or an Account of the Rise and Progress of the Art, and the Several Discoveries Therein from Age to Age. Translated by James Drake
& Andrew Baden. London: Brown, et al., 1699. read: Oxford diary, Oct. 4-13, 1725 (vol. 17 in this edn.)
Lemery, Nicolas (1645-1715). New Curiosities in Art and Nature.
London: John King, 1711. source: several receipts in Primitive Physic Lessius, Leonard (1554-1623) et al. The Temperate Man; or, the right way of preserving life and health, together with soundness of the senses, judgment and memory unto extreme old age [Includes Lessius' Hygiasticon, translated by Nicholas
Bibliography Ferrar; Ludwig Cornarus's Treatise of Temperance and Sobriety, translated by George Herbert; and an anonymous discourse 'that a spare diet is better than a splendid and sumptuous', translated by Ferrar]. London: John Starkey, 1678. read: Oxford diary, Oct. 6, 1733 (vol. 17 in this edn.)
Lobb, Theophilus (1678-1763). The Good Samaritan; or Useful Family Physician. London: J. Coole, 1764. source: several receipts in Primitive Physic
Lobb, Theophilus (1678-1763). Medicinal Letters. London: James Buckland, 1763. source: 'A Remedy for the Palsy' and 'Method of curing a violent Sprain', AM 8 (1785): 327—28 Lommius, Jodocus (ca. 1500-ca. 1564). Commentaru de sanitate tuenda in primum librum De Re Medica Aurelii Corneii Celsi.
3rd edition. Leiden: Johann Langerak, 1734 [1724 ori.]. own: Bayley 151* ('J.W. 1750')1 Lommius, Jodocus (ca. 1500-ca. 1564). De curandis febribus continuis liber. Edited by John Wigan. Revised edition. Rotterdam: Johann Beman, 1733 [1718 ori.]. own: Bayley 150* ('J.W. 1750') Lommius, Jodocus (ca. 1500-ca. 1564). Observationum medicinalium libri tres. 4th edition. Amsterdam: Jansson-Weisberg,
1738 [1643 ori.]. own: Bayley 149* (corner torn off cover, almost certainly for autograph) Lovett, Richard (1692—1780). The Subtil Medium Proved; or, That wonderful power of nature .. .which they called sometimes aether, but oftener elementary fire, verified; showing that all the distinguishing and essential qualities ascribed to aether .. .are to be found in electrical fire ...; giving an account of the progress and several gradations of electricity, from those ancient times to the present. London: J. Hinton et al., 1756. extract: major source for Desideratum MacBride, David (1726—78). Experimental Essays on Medical and Philosophical Subjects. London: A. Millar, 1764. cite: Primitive Physic, §199, receipts ##8-9
MacBride, David (1726—78). A Methodical Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Physic. London: Strahan, 1772. comment on: Journal, Aug. 18, 1777, 23:66 in this edn.
1 For a description of Cornelius Bayley's list of books in the library of Kingswood
School, and their likely connection to John Wesley, see Randy L. Maddox, 'Kingswood School Library Holdings (ca. 1775)', Methodist History 41.1 (2002): 342-70.
Bibliography
Mead, Richard (1673—1754). A Mechanical Account of Poisons, m Several Essays. 3rd edn. with large additions. London: J.
Brindley, 1745 [JW draws on some additions found first in this edition]. source: two receipts in Primitive Physic, §153
Mead, Richard (1673—1754). Medical Precepts and Cautions. London: J. Brindley, 1751. source: several receipts in Primitive Physic cite: JW to the Editor of Lloyd's Evening Post, c. Jan. 23,
1776 (see Appendix D) Mead, Richard (1673-1754). "An Abstract of part of a Letter from Dr. Bonomo to Signior Redi, containing some Observations concerning the Worms of Human Bodies." Philosophical
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The Medical Museum; or a Repository of Cases, Experiments, Researches and Discoveries. 3 vols. London: Richardson and Clark, 1763-64. source: 'On the Power of the External Absorption of the Human Body', AM 10 (1787): 652-54 Miller, Philip (1691-1771). The Gardener's Dictionary; containing the methods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit, and flower gardens, as also the physick garden. 2 vols. London:
Charles Rivington, 1735. assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, &
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Nugent, Christopher (1698-1775). An Essay on the Hydrophobia; to which is prefixed The Case of a Person who was bit by a Mad
Dog, Had the Hydrophobia, and was happily cured. London:
James Leake and William Frederic, 1753. cite: note in Advice with Respect to Health on prescription
No. 30; note in Primitive Physic on §153, receipt #1 Perry, Sampson (1747-1823). A Disquisition of the Stone and Gravel, and other Diseases of the Bladder, Kidneys, etc. 7 th edition. London: Shatwell, 1785. own: Wesley's House library comment on ■.Journal, Nov. 3, 1785, 23:380 in this edn.
Priestley, Joseph (1733-1804). History and Present State of Electricity with Original Experiments. London: J. Dodsley et al.,
1767. comment on: Journal, Jan. 4, 1768, 22:117 in this edn.
Bibliography Quincy, John (d. 1722). Pharmacopeia officinalis et extemporanea; or, A complete English dispensatory in four parts. London: A.
Bell, W. Taylor, & J. Osborn, 1718. assign: place in libraries for assistants in Bristol, London, &
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Riviere, Lazare (1589-1655). Four Books of that Learned, and Renowned Doctor, Lazarus Riverius, Containing Five hundred thirteen Observations, or Histories, of Famous and Rare Cures.
Translated [from Latin] by Nicholas Culpeper. London:
John Streator, 1668 [this edn. more accessible than 1658 original (because bound with following), but note that pagination skips from 120 to 221], source: numerous receipts in Primitive Physic
Riviere, Lazare (1589-1655). The Practice of Physick in Seventeen several Books ... being chiefly a tra nslation of the works of that learned and renowned doctor, Lazarus Riverius. Translated [from Latin] by Nicholas Culpeper ... London: John
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Robinson, Nicholas, M.D. (c. 1697-1775). A Treatise on the Virtues and Efficacy of a Crust of Bread, eat early in a Morning, Fasting: To which are added some Particular Remarks concerning the Great Cures accomplished by the Saliva or Fasting Spittle.
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Advice with Respect to Health, Preface, §6 source: Primitive Physic, §183, receipt #3
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Russell, Richard (1687—1759). A Dissertation on the Use of Seawater in the Diseases of the Glands. Particularly The Scurvy,
Jaundice, King's-Evil, Leprosy, and the Glandular Consumption. London: W. Owen, 1752. cite: Desideratum, Preface, §4 source: some receipts in Primitive Physic
Schomberg, Ralph (1714—92). Aphorismi Practici: sive Observationes Medicae. London: Jacob Robinson, 1750. source: Primitive Physic, §8, receipt #1
Short, Thomas (1690?—1772). A Dissertation on Tea; explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments, and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions, to which is added the natural history of tea. London: Fletcher Gyles, 1730. cite: Letter to a Friend Concerning Tea, §13
Short, Thomas (1690?—1772). Medicina Bntannica; or, a Treatise on such Physical Pla nts as are generally to be found, in the Pields or Gardens in Great Britain. London: Manby and Cox, 1746. source: numerous receipts in Primitive Physic
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1776 (see Appendix D) Tissot, Samuel Auguste David (1728-97). Advice to the People in General, with regard to Their Health. Translated by J. Kirkpatrick. London: Becket & De Hondt, 1765. source: Advices with Respect to Health (1769, #315)
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Dilly, 1774. comment on: Journal, June 24, 1774, 22:418 in this edn.; JW to Andrew Wilson, July 8, 1774 (vol. 29 in this edn.)
Withering, William (1741—99). An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses; with Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases. Birmingham: Swinney, 1785. read: Journal, Mar. 21, 1786, 23:387 in this edn.
INDEX OF MEDICAL CONDITIONS
MENTIONED BY WESLEY
abortion (miscarriage), 123, 503 blood, spitting or vomiting, 96, 137-39, 380 boils, 139, 532-34 bowel, pain, 157, 268, 342, 376, (cf. 706-7) agues (fevers), 74—75, 124-29, 263, 268, 333-34, 345, 403-4, 473-78, (cf. 716-17) anasarca, 75, 166-68 angina pectoris, 46 ankles, weakness or pain in, 232, 446,449,451 breast cancer, 142—14, 624 breast milk, to increase, 89 breasts, hard, 139—10 breasts, infected (mastitis), 89, 254, 345, 347,351,418, 625 anxiety, 411, 466, 477, 599, 616-22 apoplexy, 131-32, 262, 264, 360, 208, 505 breasts, sore or swelled, 140 bronchocele, 265, 333, 336-37 bruise, 77, 82, 140—11, 171, 177, 439-42, 545,551 appetite (excessive or loss), 117, 263, 337, 523-25 burn, 77, 141-42,265,521 132, 152, 263,375, 377-80,386, 413,435,455, 457, 467, 482, 486, 498, 510, 537, 554-55, 592-95,599, 601 asthma, 76, 132-35, 160, 262-64, cancer, 78, 142—45, 183, 193, 263, 266, 356, 502, 505-6 canker, 78, 173, 244 chapped hands, 148 chapped lips, 149 chapped nipples, 148, 506 chilblain, 77, 145, 149, 527-30 childbirth (delivery), 165, 184-84, 266, 380, 403, 407, 606, 607 back, pain, 210-11, 230, 255, 263, 333, 347-48, 455 baldness, 135-36, 191 bleeding, to stanch, 76-77, 136— 503-5 child care, 125, 146-47, 151, 157, 39, 543-14,553-55 blindness, 83, 171-76, 262-63, 165, 183, 199, 222-24, 243-44, 256, 262, 264, 408, 444, 450, 457-58, 461-64, 506-14, 527-31,551 chincough, see whooping-cough chlorosis, 190-91, 206, 333, 265-66, 333-35, 375,444 blisters, 139, 447-48 blood, coagulated, 79, 139, 263, 356,524 blood, extravasated, 265, 333, 498-501 cholera morbus, 147-48, 185, 336-37 blood, in eye, 170-71, 336 blood, in urine, 95, 248 490-93
Index of Medical Conditions cold, 118-19, 149, 191,206, 228, epilepsy (falling sickness), 79, 83, 177-79, 263, 265-66, 333, 340, 375-76, 545 eye, bleary, 170 eye, bloodshot, 82, 170-71 eye, bruised, 82, 171 eye, cloudy, 171 eye, film on, 82, 172 eye, infected, 82, 172-73 eye, pearl in, 174-76 eye, watery or weeping (suffusion), 339, 343, 347, 350, 354, 410, 434-37, 588,605 coldness in the feet, 265, 333, 337-38, 341-42, 345-46 colic, 78-79, 149-53, 406-7, 48490, 507, 592, 594, 600, 605 constipation (costiveness), 80, 118-19, 125, 151, 158-59, 161, 226, 235, 376, 418, 449, 452, 465,467, 484, 488, 491,541, 605, 662 consumption, 154—56, 262-63,
eye, weak or sore, 83, 171-72, 175 eye, white speck in, 175 273, 333, 337, 376, 380, 382, 386, 404, 509, 581, 593 contractions of the limbs, 200fainting (swooning), 177, 376,
201, 265-66, 333, 337, 340 convulsions, 76, 79, 80, 134-35, 536-48 falling sickness, see epilepsy felon, 265, 333, 341, 533 fever, 83, 180-83, 263, 360, 410156-57, 160,228-29, 262-65, 294, 342, 349, 360, 375, 377, 457, 492, 506-7,510-12, 545 corns, 79, 157-58, 266, 536, 628 costiveness, see constipation cough, 80, 159-62, 206, 216, 26228, 464-73 fever, intermitting, see agues fistula, 183-84, 668 fistula, lachrymal, 174, 265, 333, 64, 418-30 cramp, 80-81, 162-63, 265, 333, 34142 fleas, to rid of, 184 flooding, see haemorrhage, uterine Fluor Aldus, see the whites flux, see diarrhoea frenzy, 379 frostbite, 526-27, 624 fundament, falling of, 179, 185, 337, 345, 492 cuts, festering, 90, 217 deafness (hearing loss), 81, 163-65, 262-63, 265-66, 333, 338-39 diabetes, 81, 165 diarrhoea, 84, 185-86, 377, 493-94 diarrhoea, bloody, 84, 186-87 dropsy, 75, 81, 166-69, 245, 263,
ganglion, 208, 265, 333, 342 gangrene (mortification), 188, 333, 340, 407, 474, 483, 553, 605-6, 627 drowning, 169, 203, 514-16 259, 265,333,346,356, 403, 431,470, 479, 481,524, 52627,533 gonorrhoea, 376 gout, 85, 188-90, 262-66, 333, ear, noise in, 170 ear, wax in, 81, 164, 170, 338 earache, 82, 169-70 34243, 375, 380, 576-606
Index of Medical Conditions
gravel, 85, 190, 262, 266, 333, 343 gravidation (pregnancy), 502-6 green sickness (see chlorosis) gums, to prevent wasting, 191, jaundice, 87-88, 198-99, 378-79, 474, 605-6 kidneys, stone, 237, 263 kidneys, stoppage, 88, 237 King's evil (scrofula), 88, 183, 226, 438 gutta serena, see blindness 199-200, 262, 265-66, 333, 359, 380, 408 knots in the flesh, 265, 333, 345 haemorrhage, see bleeding, to stanch haemorrhage, uterine, 184—85, lameness, 200-201, 263, 265, 333, 503-4 haemorrhoids, 90, 183, 213-14 hair, promote growth, 191 head stuffiness, 194 headache, 86, 164, 191-94, 228, 345, 625 legs, inflamed or sore, 93, 201 leprosy, 88, 201-2, 228, 246, 263, 265-66, 333,359 lethargy, 89, 202, 263, 359, 375 lice, 89, 197n, 202-3, 403 lightning, struck by, 203, 322-23 264, 265, 333, 342-44 heart, palpitation of, 212-13, 263, 265, 333, 349 heartburn, 194 hectic fever, 181n, 263, 375, 408, Lues venerea, see syphilis lunacy, 89, 203-4 427, 595 hemicrania, 86, 193-94, 263 hernia, see rupture hiccup, 86, 194—95 hoarseness, 87, 195-96 hunger (to prevent), 132n hypochondria, 196, 206, 376, 379, mad dog bite, see rabies madness, raging, 204 mastitis, see breasts, infected measles, 206, 397, 462-64 melancholy, 203, 228, 262, 359, 376,607 menstruation, excessive flow, 383, 592, 608 hysteria, 152, 196, 263-64, 333, 207-8 menstruation, obstructed, 206-7 miscarriage, see abortion morning sickness, 91 mortification, see gangrene mouth, sore, 92, 230 344-45, 359, 379, 589, 592, 599, 608 Iliac passion, 196, 490-92 imposthume (abscess), 265, 423, 438, 542 incontinence, 376 inflammations (general), 262-63, nervous disorders, 86, 118, 127, 153, 193,204, 209-11,228, 263-64, 277, 280, 286, 306, 309, 334, 355, 374—78, 382, 385-86, 509, 540-41, 553-55, 584, 589-90, 597, 599,616-21, 663, 665 265, 333-34, 352, 406-7, 418-28 intestines, twisting, 245 itch, the, 87, 197-98, 402-3
Index of Medical Conditions St. Vitus's dance, 263, 345 sciatica, 91, 142, 224—25, 263, 265, night sweats, 239, 672 nose, runny, 222 nose, polyps in, 217 numbness, of the limbs, 245 333, 352, 448-50, 606 scirrhus, 213, 359, 428, 431, 505-6 scoliosis (curvature of the spine), obesity (extreme fat), 179 old age, 210, 362, 375,381,502,
scurvy, 91, 200, 225-28, 263, 266, 359, 581,627, 655-56, 662, 664 shingles, 145, 228-29, 265, 333, 553, 576, (cf. 700, 703-4) palsy, 211-12, 265-66, 333,345,
sinew, cut, 250, 259 sinew, tightened, 229, 265-66 skin abrasion, 229 skin, split on shin, 228 sleep, insomnia, 251-52, 262, 350, 349-50,356, 441,589, 592, 624-25 phlegm (flegm), 184, 546, 607 piles, see haemorrhoids pimples, 262, 376, 378 plague, 214-15, 434 pleurisy, 90, 215-16, 333, 402, 375,380,386-88,614,618-20 smallpox, 92, 229-30, 329, 397, 428^30, 481-84, 689, 717 poisoning, 153, 213, 216-17, 232, 454—61 snakebite (viper), 252 splinter, extraction, 92, 244, 259, 550-51 pneumonia (peripneumony), 219, 534-35 sprain, 92, 231-32, 265, 333, 352— 418-28 pregnancy, see gravidation Ptyalism, 217 53,525,625 sting, 92, 232-33 stitch in the side, 233, 429-30 stomach, cold, 234—35 stomach, pain, 234—35, 263, 265, quinsy, 202, 218-19, 430-34, 689 rabies (bite of a mad dog), 89, 95, 333, 348-49, 377-79 stone, 92-93, 235-37, 262-64, 266, 204-5,252, 263n, 451-54, 628 rash, from nettles, 210 rheumatism, 90-91, 142, 219-22,
strangury, 93, 237-38, 376 sunburn, 238 sunstroke, 443—45 surfeit, 117, 228, 238, 263, 265, 235, 262-63, 265-66, 306, 333, 337-39, 348-51, 406, 445-50, 567, 584-86, 589, 592, 594, 597, 600, 606 rickets, 127, 146, 222, 262-63, 333,346 sweating, profuse, 238 swellings, general, 239, 263, 265, 379-80, 408,513,606 ringworms, 222, 265, 333, 352 rupture, 222-23, 263, 530-32 333, 352-54 syphilis (Lues venerea), 203 St. Anthony's fire, 75, 129-30, 265, tabes dorsalis, 382 teeth, cleaning, 94, 240 333-34, 478-81
Index of Medical Conditions
uvula, inflamed, 169, 219, 249-50 uvula, relaxed, 95, 250 teeth, loose, 240 teeth, on edge, 242—43 tendons, wounded, 260 testicles, painful or inflamed, 225, vapours, 228, 536, 540-41, 553, 608,616 vein, cut, 250 vertigo, 95, 228, 250-51, 263 Vigilia (see sleep, insomnia) vomiting (to stop), 95-96, 253,
thirst, to quench, 243, 388, 415-16 thorns, to remove, 244, 259, 534-35 throat, sore, 219, 231, 265, 333, 262, 563, (cf. 704-5)
thrush, 145, 151, 244 toe hurt, 333, 342-43 tonsillitis, 245, 431 toothache, 94, 177, 241-42, 265, warts, 96, 158, 253-54, 266, 535 wens, 254, 265, 535 white swelling, 94, 202, 239 whites, the (leucorrhoea), 207, 333, 353-54,437-39 254-56, 263, 376, 379 whitlow, 96, 256, 533-34 whooping-cough (chincough), ulcers, 94-95, 230, 245-17, 263, 265, 525-26 urine, bloody, 95, 248 urine, involuntary, 248—19, 262, 146-47 womb, falling of, 179, 379 worms, 96, 183, 256-58, 472, 510 wounds, 96, 258-60
urine, sharp, 95, 249, 412 urine, suppression of, 248, 249, yeast infections, see the whites 262, 406
GENERAL INDEX
This index includes:
1) names of Wesley's contemporaries and sources 2) major aspects of health regimen 3) distinctive or debated forms of treatment
Abraham, Thomas, of Ireland, 666 air, 116-18, 120, 147, 209, 229, Bemrose, Henry, of London, 297 Benson, Rev. Joseph, 25, 670 Berdmore, Thomas, 101,241-43 Berkeley, Bishop George, 69, 76, 309-12, 360-61, 382-83, 387, 401,407, 409,414-15 alcohol, see beer, brandy, drams, 83,88, 90, 92, 129, 133, 151, 159-60, 162, 166, 177, 180, 198, 210-11,215,220, 226, 237, 246, 305, 308, 332-33 Bettesworth, Sarah, of London, Geneva spirit, and wine Allen, Dr. John, 69, 79-96, 150, 158-60, 168, 170, 178, 192-93, 197, 204, 220, 223, 225, 227, 248-50, 253-54 Annesley, Rev. Samuel, 8 'Antidote' (#1 and #2), 56-59,
Blackmore, Richard, 568-71, 608-10 Blackwell, Ebenezer, of London, 216n, 677-78, 683,685-87 18n,273n bleeding (as treatment), 69, 123, Baker, Mary, of London, 340 Ball, Hannah, of High Wycombe, 46 Banyer, Henry, 191, 206-7 Bates, Mrs., of Leicestershire, 142, 126, 127, 130-32, 154,177, 180, 187, 196,215,230, 249, 255,393,401-2, 406,412, 420-23,427, 430,432, 438, 440-42, 444, 446-49, 453, 458, 465-66, 479-80, 482-85, 487, 492, 501-3, 505,515-16,519, 522, 525, 530-31,533, 536-37,
600, 602-3, 689,717 blistering (as treatment), 78, 86,
Battie, Dr. William, of London, 34 Baxter, Rev. Richard, 6 Bayly, Rev. Lewis, 29-30 Baynard, Dr. Edward, 94, 124, 134, 154-56, 163-64, 166, 170, 181-82, 186, 196, 204-5,215, 220, 225, 235, 237, 239, 245, 264, 305,689 beer (small beer), 78-79, 116, 118, 143, 193,204, 248,354,423, 441,448, 469, 472, 481,483-84, 490, 546, 591,600, 603 135, 142, 154, 157-58,167,169, 177, 258, 386, 489
General Index Cheyne, Dr. George, of Bath, Boerhaave, Dr. Hermann, 43, 47, 10-11, 16, 20,33-36, 43-44, 49-53, 114, 117-19, 143, 269-73, 570, 579, 581,610-14, 618,688 chocolate (cocoa), 282, 382, 386, 116, 154, 180, 188,379, 707 Bose, Prof. Georg Matthias, 291 Boyle, Dr. Robert, 10, 16, 21, 43, 47, 68, 70, 74-98, 115, 121-22, 123-260 (nearly every page), 327, 572,687 Brames, Abraham, of Rochester,
'Civis', 57, 680-82 cleanliness, 52-53, 117, 224, 402 clinic, medical, in Bristol, 18, 286 clinic, medical, in London, 17-19, 24,650-51 brandy, 81, 90, 133, 137, 156, 164, 168, 172, 191,201,217-18, 231-32, 234,256, 261,439, 450, 478n, 503, 524-25, 530, 538, 544, 555, 594, 651 breastfeeding, of adult (as treat37-38, 46, 286 clinics, electric therapy, in London, 46, 295-98 clyster (enema), 131, 152-53, 180, 235, 393, 402, 404 Cobb, Sir George, 560n cobweb pills, 124, 182, 403 Cockburn, Dr. William, of Westment), 155, 382 breastfeeding, children, 165, 264, 507,513 Broome, John, of Worcester, 343n Brown, Abigail, of London, 344 Buchan, Dr. William, 21, 59, 103, minster, 402, 717 coffee, 118, 134, 167, 209, 230, 386, 442, 503, 520, 573 Cogan, Dr. Thomas, 697 cold bathing (as cure), 52-53, 83, 123-24, 130, 135-36, 185, 257,
Buddeus, Johann Franz, 44, 89-90, 118, 124-25, 127-28, 131, 133, 135-36, 141-12, 146, 149, 152-54, 156—57, 161,163, 166, 171, 177, 181-83, 185-86, 189, 192-93, 196, 201,203,204, 207,211,213,220, 222-25, 231,237-39, 241,245, 247-48, 250-51,254, 259, 262-64,305, 387-88, 437, 445, 450, 508-9, 512,514, 521,525,528-30, 556 cold water (drank as cure), 78, 80, 358-64 Bund, Elizabeth, of Worcester, 342 Bunyan, John, 27 Burgis, Mary, of London, 347 Burnet, Bishop Gilbert, 7, 10, 12,
Butler, Mary, of London, 352 buttermilk, 154, 181, 388, 406, 426, 458, 493 Buttle, Elizabeth, of London, 345 83, 92, 94, 124, 130-32, 134, 147, 149, 159, 168, 180, 186, 188, 194—95, 207, 212, 215-16, 219, 225,229, 231,238, 264, 305, 386, (cf. 406, 429), 458,
Collis, Elizabeth, of London, 337 Cadogan, Dr. William, 567-606 Campbell, Ann, of London, 350 Cardiff, Ann, of Islington, 351 Castleman, John, surgeon, 40 chamber horse, see wooden horse Chamberlayne, John, 268-69
General Index
cool regimen, 49-50 Edwards, Mrs., of London, 348 electricity (as therapy), 48, 100, Cownley, Joseph, itinerant, 24—25, 121, 136, 140-41, 162-63, 167, 169, 171, 177, 191,204, 206, 209-12,219, 241,247, 258, 265-66, 289-356, 524n, 525n, 663, 672, (cf. 700-1, 703-1) Ellison, John, of London, JW's 299n Crommelin, Dr. Alexander, of Ireland, 668 Dancocks, Margaret, of Worcester, 337,343 Daret (Duret), Pierre Isaac, of nephew, 352 (Barnes) Ellison, Sarah, of LonLausanne, 376n Davison, Jane, of London, 353 Derham, William, 358, 362n, 364n Desaguliers, John Theophilus, 294 Descartes, Rene, 43 diet, general advice, 48-50, 117— don, 354 Else, Joseph, surgeon, 39 Evans, Caleb, of Bristol, 59-61, 684, 690, 699,715,720 exercise, general advice, 50-51, 111, 116, 118, 124, 135,360, 382, 387, 413, 418, 426-28, 470, 498-502, 577, 581, 589-92, 604-5,618, 620, 662, 664, 668 18, 381,413-16, 470, 577-81, 592-98, 604-5,618, 620, 651 Digby, Sir Kenelm, 11, 79, 97, 126, 137,139, 144, 149, 157, 162, 166, 168, 179-80, 185, 192, 200, 202,211,215,223,235-36, 240, 254, 668 Dobson, Thomas, of London, 349 Dover, Dr. Thomas, 95, 114, 130, Farley, Felix, Bristol printer, 71 Fernel, Dr. Jean, 4, 6 Fisher, John, of Dublin, lOln Fletcher, Rev. John, 55, 715, 720 Floyer, Anthony, of Dorchester, 334-35 Floyer, Sir John, 69, 66, 127, 131, 133, 135, 154, 165, 178, 188-90, 196, 201,203,215-16, 236, 688-89 Downes, John, itinerant, 24 Drake, Dr. James, 16 drams (spiritous liquors), 117-18, 133, 142, 146, 152-54, 157, 171, 196, 201-2,213,222, 237-38, 247-48, 251,262, 264, 305, 689,716 'Fly-Flap', 56, 679 Fothergill, Dr. John, of London, 39 Franklin, Benjamin, 293-94, 304, 123, 134-35, 146, 281,284,386, 414, 436, 440, 442, 452, 465, 484, 503,511,520, 524, 530, 537-38,544,546,549,556, 570, 579, 593,595, 598,617, 620 Drummond, Dr. Archibald, of 310,312-13,315-24 Freind, Dr. John, 581, 688 Freke, John, 301, 304, 308-9, 311, 324,618 'Friend to Truth', 57, 682-83 Fuller, Francis, 5In, 11 In Furly, Dorothy, 273, 613n Furly, Samuel, 24 Rudgeway, 40 du Fay, Charles Francois de Cisternay, 290 dumb-bell, 50-51, 620
General Index Hoffmann, Dr. Friedrich, 45, 375, Galen of Pergamon, 41-44, 205, 511, 579 Hopkins, Esther, of Tedny, 353 Horace, Roman poet, 110, 594, 252,609,688 Garway, Thomas, 267 Geneva spirit (gin), 150, 169, 200, 681, 687 humours, traditional and Wesley,
George II, King of England, 668 Godfrey, Boyle, 59n, 216 Godfrey's cordial, 695 Goldsmith, Dr. Oliver, 691, 697 Gooding, John, Newcastle printer,
566 (scattered use byTissot), 567-70, 587, 590-91,607-9 Hurst, Rev. Samuel, 13 Huxham, Dr. John, 216, 230
Grant, William, 569 Gray, Stephen, 290, 310 Gregory, Dr. James, of Edinburgh, James, Dr. Robert, 112n, 262 Johnson, Elizabeth, of London,
Johnson, Samuel, 59, 571, 720n Jones, Dr. John, 18—19 Jones, Joseph, of London, 348 Jones, Samuel, of Lambeth, 338 Jones, William, of London, 337
Guilford, Sarah, of London, 351 Halfpenny, Francis, of London, 353 Hamilton, Dr. James, of Edinburgh, 39 Hancocke, John, 69, 78, 80, 83, 92, 97, 124, 130, 134, 137, 147, 149, 159, 180, 194,216,219, 221, 225,229, 231,253, 305, 569 Harvey, Dr. William, 43, 609 Hawes, Dr. William, of Strand, Kettilby, Mary, 69, 76, 78, 89, 93, 134, 150, 203,214 Kirkham, Rev. Lionel, of Stanton,
Kirkham, Robert, 12 Kitely, James, of Lambeth, 347 Knox, Mrs., of Londonderry, 657, 60-64, 102, 105, 116, 123-253 (nearly every page), 691-729 Hayes, Michael, of Westminster, 661,663 Knox, Alexander, of Londonderry,
Heathcote, Anne, of London, 334 Herbert, Rev. George, 4-6, 10, 25,30, 394n, 613n, 653-69 Knox, Sarah, of Londonderry, 665 Kratzenstein, Christian Gottlieb, 12-13,621 Higgins, Mr., of Worcester, 343 Higgins, Mrs., of Worcester, 345 Hill, Dr. John, 100, 209-10, 221, 290-91 Kruger, Johann Gottlob, 290 570, 612 Hill, Richard, 55, 274 Hippocrates, ancient physician, Lallo, Mary, of London, 345 Lancaster, Nathaniel, 54 Laud, Archbishop William, 5 Law, Dr. John, of Lurgan, 39 Lemery, Nicolas, 97, 128, 137, 41, 568 Hoadly, Benjamin, 301, 304, 158, 192,213 313-14
General Index
lemonade (a Wesley favorite), 84, 220, 223, 227, 229, 239, 248, 251,256, 264, 281,382, 384-85, 388, 406, 425-26, 434, 438, 458, 460-61, 464, 486-87, 520, 522, 535,550-51,555,587, 624 M'Innon, Angus, of London, 337 Monro, Dr. Alexander II, 39 Moubray, Robert, of Edinburgh, 124, 128, 151-53, 168, 182, 236n, 238, 248-19, 403, 42In, 445, 468, 471,541-12, 548-49, 651,658 Lettsom, Dr. John Coakley, 60,
Lewis, Dr. William, 677 Lind, Dr. James, 125 Lobb, Dr. Theophilus, 101, 146—
Musschenbroek, Pieter van, of 47, 156, 164, 178, 184, 190, 195, 198, 201, 205, 232, 256, 347, 623-25 Lovett, Richard, 29-1—301, 304—7, Leyden,291,311 Nevil, Thomas, of London, 352 Newton, Sir Isaac, 43, 300, 301, 311,318, 334-56 310,585 Nollet, Abbe Jean-Antoine, 291 Nugent, Dr. Christopher, of Bath, MacBride, Dr. David, 46, 101, 227 Marten, John, London apothecary, 204n, 560n 367-69 Martin, Benjamin, 304, 328-31 Mason, Simon, 270 Matthews, William, of London, 341 (Brisbane) Maxwell, Lady Darcy, Oglethorp, Mary, of London, 337 Oglethorpe, James, 13 Olivers, Thomas, itinerant, 715,
opium (laudanum), 70, 120, 125,
Mead, Dr. Richard, 34n, 38, 100, 148, 152, 162, 178, 187,216, 219,251,437, 453,460, 493, 547, 551-52, 560n,561,563, 594, 600, 656, 658, 695n, 708, 721, 727n Outen, Richard, of London, 344 Ovid, Roman poet, 112, 582 Ovington, John, 268-69 155, 165, 196, 203-5, 234-35, 256, 258, 402-3, 688 Medical Society of London, 60, 62, 692-93,711 mercury (quicksilver), 70, 120, 133, 135, 153, 183, 190, 196, 198, 203,217, 245,247,252, 255-56, 293,314, 452-53, 560-61,601,705,712 Middleton, Dr. John, of Bristol, Paracelsus, 42M3 passions, irregular and health, 34-36, 42, 119,360, 423,481,
577, 580-82, 584, 598-601, 605,617-21 Paulli, Simon, of Denmark, 268 Peltecree, Mary, of London, 348 Perkins, Mr., of Worcester, 349-50 39, 664 Mieg, Dr. Achilles, of Basel, 376 Miles, Rev. Henry, of Tooting, 291 milk (as main remedy), 81-83, 85,90-91,95, 120, 134, 143, 146-47, 154-56, 162,165,170, 178-79, 181,204, 206, 208,212,
General Index Ritchie, Elizabeth, of Otley, 25-26, Peruvian bark (source of quinine), 70, 120, 125, 159, 226, 238,356, 382, 387-88, 394, 403-4, 473n, 475n, 476-78, 559, 562, 594, 655, 665, 672-73 Piper, Dr. John, of Essex, 124n, 669-74 Riviere, Dr. Lazare, 101, 123, 126— 29, 136, 148, 152, 155-56, 158, 167-68, 186-88,213,222-23, 243, 246, 254-55 Robertson, Dr. John, 45 Robinson, Dr. Nicholas, 266n, 403,581 Pliny the elder, 683 Pope, Alexander, 683 Priestley, Dr. Joseph, 136n, 266n, 608n Royal College of Physicians, 3, 8, 18, 38-39, 56, 60, 167n, 347n Royal Society, 357, 402 Russell, Richard, 100, 130, 239, 299, 700, 704 Pringle, Dr. John, 433, 728 Prior, Matthew, 323 'Public Applause', 62, 710-12 purge (as a treatment), 69, 125—
Rutty, Dr. John, of Dublin, 39, 664 27, 130-32, 139, 143, 147, 150, 157, 165, 167, 180, 200-1,206, 208,217-18, 224, 226, 230, 239, 245, 255, 258, 403, 412, 422-23, 438, 441-42, 447, 45859, 463, 468-69, 475-77, 480, 487, 490, 492, 495-96, 502, 506,510-11,524, 530, 538-39, 544, 554-58, 565, 568, 590-91, 659,689 Schomberg, Dr. Ralph, 132 Shakespeare, William, 279 Short, Thomas, 97, 100, 114n, 123-260 (nearly every page),
Sinnock, William, of London, 343 sleep, general advice, 52, 255, 360, 381-82, 386-87, 552-54, 592, 614,618-20, 654 Smargins, Mary, 338 Smith, Hugh, 135 Soule, Robert, of Worcester, 352 steel (shavings as a treatment), Quincy, Dr. John, 16, 269 Rackstrow, Benjamin, 294 Radcliffe, Dr. John, 688 Ramsay, John, of London, 350 Ray, John, 358, 363 Rea, Susanna, of Worcester, 336n Read, John, cabinet maker, 347 Reddall, John, of London, 297-98 Rees, Rev. Abraham, of London, 120, 191, 501, 594 Story, Eleanor, of London, 347 Stotesburv, Capt. Edward, 276n (Jackson) Stotesbury, Mary, 276n Strahan, William, London printer,
Suetonius, Roman historian, 306 sweat (as a treatment), 75, 84-85,
Rennee, Richard, of London, 343 Rennee, Samuel, of London, 343 riding, as healthy exercise, 51, 118, 87, 111, 119, 124, 126, 127-29, 189, 199,211,215,220, 224, 245, 264, (cf. 406, 409-10), 449,
Swift, Dr. Jonathan, 402 128,387,418,426-27, 520 (cf.
General Index
Sydenham, Dr. Thomas, 13, 16, 125, 127-28, 131-34, 147,153, 180, 183, 194, 206,216, 230, 234,250,252-53,403,412-13, 419, 422, 440, 441n,458, 46869, 475n, 482-83,488, 490, 495-96, 518, 520, 548, 550-51, 554-57, 590-91,600, 603,626 (cf. 701-2, 705-6) von Storck, Baron Anton, of Vi44, 69,76,81,85,90,95, 114, 136, 147, 196, 220, 229, 252, 547, 563, 568-72, 610,688, 716, 721 'Talus', 718-19 Taylor, Eleanor, of London, 348 Taylor, Elizabeth, of Worcester, 344,354 tea, 78-79, 83-84, 118, 123, 146, enna, 382 209,251,252,258, 264, 267-88, 382, 386, 487, 525, 537, 539, 617, 620,651 Tennent, Dr. John, 13, 69-70, 687 Terence, Roman playwright, 271, Wade, Joshua, of Pershore, 353 Walpole, Horace, 570 Walter, Ann, of London, 350 Warburton, Bishop William, 54 Wathen, Samuel, surgeon, 39 Watkins, Francis, 304, 331-32 Watson, William, 301, 304, 324306,688 Thomason, Anne, of Worcester, 341-42 Tissot, Samuel-Auguste An27, 332 Watts, Mrs., 152, 716 Webb, John, of Worcester, 341 Webb, Sarah, of London, 344 Welles, Benjamin, 568 Wesley, Charles, 12, 14, 17, 29-30, dre David, 20, 101, 105-7, 130, 131, 136, 145, 155, 159, 169, 181, 186-87, 191, 196, 206-7,216,219-20, 225,257, 365-566 tobacco (as medicine), 82, 94, 169, 32-33, 272,717 Wesley, John, health record, 39—40 (Goldhawk / Vazeille) Wesley, 213,241,243,492,515,518,
Told, Silas, of London, 349 Toldervy, Elizabeth, of Worcester, Mary, 24, 273 Wesley, Samuel Sr., 8-10, 13 Wesley, Samuel Jr., 13-14 (Gwynne) Wesley, Sarah, 29, 32 Wesley, Sarah Jr., 51, 52n Westley, Bartholomew, 7-8 Westley, John, 7-8 Whitefield, Rev. George, 14, 54,
Toplady, Augustus Montague, 55-56, 188n, 715-16, 720 Townsend, Edward, Dean of Norwich, 716-17 Trumbel, Mary, of London, 351 Turner, Daniel, 13 Turner, Rev. William Jr., 33n, 397n Tyler, William, of London, 350 725-26 Whitehead, Dr. John, of London,
Whytt, Dr. Robert, 163, 560n, Virgin, Margaret, of London, 351 vomit (as a treatment), 46, 69, 76, 610-12,616
General Index 417-18, 430, 435, 438, 440, 442, 444, 452, 457, 460, 465, 479, 488-89, 493-94, 496, 503, 508, 511, 520, 523-25, 537-38, 540, 542, 544, 546-50, 552, 555, 560, 562, 564, 566, 579-80, 586, 592-98, 603-5,651 Withering, Dr. William, 46 wooden horse (chamber horse), Wild, Ann, of London, 348 Willis, Dr. Thomas, 87, 181, 197, 204,253,609, 688,716 Willis, Thomas, chairmaker, of London, 343 Wilson, Benjamin, 293, 304, 313n, 314—15, 327-28,339 wine, 75, 77-78, 80-81, 83, 88-90, 92-94, 126, 128-29, 132-33, 141, 145, 158, 160, 162-63, 165, 175-79, 185-86, 188,190, 194, 196, 203,206-7, 209,211, 213-14, 220-22, 230, 232, 236, 249-50, 255-56, 261, 282, 381-82,386, 409-10,412-14, 50-51,387, 581,620
'XXX', 57-58, 684-85
Zimmermann, Dr. Johann-Georg,
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE CITATIONS
AND ALLUSIONS
Old Testament Jonah 2:9. .658
Genesis 2:7. .... 110
Habakkuk 3:18. .... 111
2:2. . 684,690 3:19. 111,364 Zechariah 1 Samuel 2:8. .285
.... 117 4:10. .660
34:32 . .... 689
Matthew 38:7. .... 110 5:29. . 283, 366 Job New Testament 6:20. .278
Proverbs 6:34. . 659, 662 7:27. .... 282 7:7-8. . 582, 660 13:12 . 582, 619 7:12. .120
26:13 . .... 287
16:24. .282
30:20 . .285
23:7-8 . .280
23:23 . .283
10:11. .657 28:18. .405
Psalms 25:35-36. .278
43-5 . .658
Mark 84:11 . .405 n, o
118:17. .661
/.o.
12:41-44. .282
Isaiah Luke 7-13 . .284
7.73
.285
30-1 . .286
33-1 . .582
10-37 . .287
11-42. .283
16:9.
.281
Jeremiah 21:1. .282
10:13 . .321
22:32 . .374
Index of Scripture Citations and Allusions
Acts Philippians 4:7.621
5:29 .284
17:25 .405
24:16 .381
Colossians 3:12.288
Romans 8:24 .656
10:17.664
12:1.288
14:17.286
1 Timothy 1:19.374
4:7.381
2 Timothy 1:6.660
2:26 .374
1 Corinthians 6:12.283
8:13.284
10:31.286
12:31.110
Hebrews 9:10.286
12:1.287
12:13.374
2 Corinthians 7:10.581
12:9.374
James 2:13.660
1 Peter 1:18-19.582
Ephesians 4:27 .374
4:30 .286
Revelation.660
James G. Donat graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, and the University of London, where he earned a PhD in the history and philosophy of science/ medicine. He is an independent scholar with work focusing on John Wesley and medicine.
Randy L. Maddox is William Kellon Quick Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, and General Editor of the Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley.
Jacket illustration from a ceramic of John Wesley by Josiah Wedgwood, reproduced by permission of the Methodist Archives and History Committee, England.
"Widely renowned as an evangelist concerned with saving souls, John Wesley was equally concerned with people's mental and physical well-being.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Wesley's writings on health and medicine, which in this volume are finally gathered together in one place. In many ways, the holistic approach to theology and pastoral care on display here anticipates today's emphasis on the embodied dimension of human life and experience."
—Jason E. Vickers, Professor of Theology, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY "Undoubtedly this is the definitive scholarly guide to John Wesley's medical works, notable for its depth of erudition when unearthing Wesley's varied and complex sources. It also serves as an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to understand more about eighteenth-century sickness, disease, medicine, and health care."
—Deborah Madden, Principal Lecturer, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK; author, "A Cheap, Safe and Natural Medicine":
Religion, Medicine and Culture in John Wesley's "Primitive Physic"
"This superbly edited collection brings together all of Wesley's writings on medical and health matters, and demonstrates his interests in topics as diverse as gout, the use of electricity, and sexual health. The volume will be essential reading for those who want to understand the extent of Wesley's interests. Scholars owe a considerable debt to James Donat and Randy Maddox for editing these writings and for their penetrating introduction."
—William Gibson, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK REUGION/Christianity/Methodist $59.99 US
ISBN-13: ci7fl-l-5Dia-5tm-4 ^►Abingdon Press"
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