Letter 0312

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Peter Barwick to Hans Sloane – October 2, 1689


Item info

Date: October 2, 1689
Author: Peter Barwick
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4036
Folio: f. 58


Original Page


Transcription

Peter Barwick (1619-1705) was a physician. He served Charles II in 1651 and was censor of the College of Physicians in 1674, 1684, and 1687. Sir Hans Sloane was one of the executors of Barwick’s will (Peter Elmer, ‘Barwick, Peter (1619–1705)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1614, accessed 9 July 2014]).



Patient Details

  • Patient info
    Name: Lady Elizabeth Monck (nee Cavendish), Duchess of Abemarle
    Gender:
    Age:
  • Description

    [Lady Elizabeth Monck, nee Cavendish, later married Ralph Montagu, Duke of Montagu. Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vol. 1, p. 90.]

  • Diagnosis

    Fever and lack of appetite as well as a 'dejection of spirit' that Pearce describes as melancholy.

  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    Vomiting was induced through a cortex.


    Ongoing Treatment:

    Jesuits powder.


    Response:

    Barwick advises against the inducing of further vomiting by cortex, as this may prevent her stomach, and consequently, her strength, from returning.

    Barwick is gladdened to hear that Sloane has been administering enough of the Powder that the Duchess' fever has gone down. Since the fever is the cause of her 'want of appetite' (so says Barwick), he claims that her appetite will return when the fever is gone.

    Once the fever clears up, it is also hoped that her melancholy will also be cured; but this might stem from the 'confused settlement' of her recently-deceased husband's estate.

  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Stomach, Grief, Melancholy, Emotions, Fevers