Letter 0453

John Ray to Hans Sloane – July 12, 1697


Item info

Date: July 12, 1697
Author: John Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4036
Folio: ff. 330-331



Original Page



Transcription

Ray was a theologian and naturalist who collected and catalogued his botanical findings in the much lauded Historia plantarum (1686, 1688) (Scott Mandelbrote, Ray , John (16271705), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23203, accessed 18 June 2013]).




Patient Details

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A John Ray
    Gender:
    Age:70 years old.
  • Description
  • Diagnosis

    Ray's ulcerous leg sores (which he refers to as herpes for lack of a better word) persist, but they are not bothering him to the extent that they were in his previous letter of July 7 (f. 328).

  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    Ray took mercury 3 different times.


    Ongoing Treatment:

    Ray has been ingesting Flower of Sulfur, and has been applying externally a concoction of 'Elecampane, Dark-root and chalk in whey' twice a day.


    Response:

    The mercury did little but keep Ray from sleeping all night; he saw no effect in it drying or healing his sores; the effects of the other measures remain mitigative, not curative.

  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Skin ailments, Ulcerous Legs