Letter 2504

Richard Richardson to Hans Sloane – September 10, 1721


Item info

Date: September 10, 1721
Author: Richard Richardson
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4046
Folio: ff. 130-131



Original Page



Transcription

Richardson writes of several people who suffered from the same ailment. It fell ‘chiefly amongst the poor people’. The epidemic killed many people. Patients have a ‘depressed pulse’ and ‘malignant fever’. The man who brought the illness from Lincolnshire is still alive, but has headaches. Richardson tried to contact the Consul, but he is traveling in France and Holland. He congratulates Sloane on the success of smallpox inoculation, noting that ‘it was practised in Asia long agoe’. Richardson was a physician and botanist who traveled widely in England, Wales, and Scotland in search of rare specimens. He corresponded and exchanged plants with many well-known botanists and naturalists (W. P. Courtney, Richardson, Richard (16631741), rev. Peter Davis, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23576, accessed 31 May 2011]).




Patient Details

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A Unnamed
    Gender:
    Age:An 'old man'.
  • Description

    The man had similar complaints as above.

  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    He took an 'alexipharmick Electuary and Julape' applied to 'his legs'. The man was blistered.


    Ongoing Treatment:

    A 'string Infusion of serpent virgin: serrd: Rat: ther: Innend: et Rorisanserum. made with malt spirits'.


    Response:

    Treatment 'had no effect not the least blister appearing'. Further blisters 'appeared under the the plaisters but [...] no discharge was made but the skin appeared very white'. The man 'went of in convulsions'.

  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Death, Colds, Eyes, Convulsions, Death, Eyes, Convulsions, Death