Letter 2063

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

John Morton to Hans Sloane – February 4, 1715/16


Item info

Date: February 4, 1715/16
Author: John Morton
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4044
Folio: ff. 129-130


Original Page


Transcription

Morton is going to send some ‘land-shells’. He knows of a man that would like to buy specimens from Sloane. John Morton was a naturalist who was in correspondence with Sloane from roughly 1703 to 1716. Morton contributed nearly one thousand specimens (fossils, shells, bones, teeth, minerals, rocks, man-made artifacts, etc.) to Sloane’s collection (Yolanda Foote, Morton, John (16711726), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19364, accessed 2 July 2013]).



Patient Details

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A Unnamed Clergyman
    Gender:
    Age:50 years old.
  • Description

    Patient has a depressive disorder, which manifested after the death of a child. See: Sloane MS 4044, fol. 128.

  • Diagnosis

    After seeing the patient lose the power to focus, Morton mentions that 'Dr. Coastman who was eminent in these cases, used to call it, a sensible Distraction'.

  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    Morton 'bled him twice with Leeches, vomited him severall Times, and given him cephalics betwixt whiles. He also had Blisters and Clysters as the symptoms indicated'. Some 'solutive medicines' were given to him as Sloane suggested.


    Ongoing Treatment:

    The man has moved out of the family home until the season becomes 'more favorable for a course of physick'. Morton believes the administration of medicines for an extended period of time will benefit the patient.


    Response:
  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Melancholy