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Letter 3327

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

John Douglas to Hans Sloane – March 17, 1727


Item info

Date: March 17, 1727
Author: John Douglas
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4048
Folio: ff. 267-268


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 267] Sr I have lately (by carefully observing the Natural structure and situation of the Urinary and Genitall parts of both Sexes) discovered a New and vastly more safe method of Cutting for the stone than any now practiced. I should very willingly Communicate it immediately to the world, to prevent the barbarity and Uncertainty of the Common Operations, did I not foresee that the fruits of my Labour and Industry must be enjoyed by other; which you very well know was the Case, when I communicated the High Operation to our Hospitall Lithotomists who by their place have ten to one the advantage of any private practitioner. I therefore beg to know, if in yor opinion its possible to obtain a patent for the secureing the sole benefitt of this Discovery to my selfe, for the common term of 14 years, in Case I oblige my selfe immediately afterwards to publish a full and exact account of the whole Operation and allow the Surgeons of all the Hospitalls in England to practice it on all the Poor, that offer them selves to be […] in their respective Hospitalls. Now supposeing this new operat’n should not prove to be more successful than the Common methods, then all the loss would be mine who must pay the Common expences of getting a Patent passed: but if it should succeed according to my expectation, even then no one is injured by it, for the Poor are serv’d, and no Mans property invaded; That this may appear evidently, and that the words of the Patent may be such as shall neither restrain others from the practice of any of the Operations now in use, or from makeing any further Discoverys, I shall (upon proper assurances that my request will be granted) communicate the whole, to two or three Surgeons of Undisputed Judgement and Characters, before the Patent is drawn, that the Operation I have to propose may be express’d in it, in such terms as will clearly distinguish it from all the Operations now in use. But if a Patent cannot be granted, nor any other encouragement obtained, that will enable me to prosecute some other designs of the same kind- [v. 267] kind with proper Vigour, then I hope you will excuse me from communicateing it to the Publick, as long as its in the Power of my Enimies to rob me of the advantage of it. Sr yor advice in this affair will extremely oblige Yor most Obedt humble servt Jo: Douglas Cannon=street March 17th 1726/7

John Douglas was a surgeon famous after 1719 for his method of removing stones. He published a book elucidating the procedure in 1720 and was appointed surgeon to Westminster Hospital in 1721 (Michael Bevan, Douglas, John (d. 1743), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7907, accessed 18 July 2013]).



Patient Details

Letter 2727

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

William Derham to Hans Sloane – February 13, 1730/31


Item info

Date: February 13, 1730/31
Author: William Derham
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4051
Folio: ff. 192-193


Original Page


Transcription

Fol. 192 Hond Sr Upminster 13 Feb: 1730/1 The late Frost having been almost as in- tense as any that hath been for many years, I send you my Account of it: wch if you think worth the cogni- zance of the R.S. be pleased to impart it to them. In the Philos: Transact: for Novr. & Decr. 1709 326. I have given an Account of some of the most remarkable Frosts, that I could fin any relation of, & particularly of that great and I had almost said universal one in 1708, wch the Soc. had very good Histories of from divers parts, & wch, in that Transactions, I have given an account of from the original Papers, wch the Soc- iety as pleased to do me the honr to entrust me wth. In that Trans: I have made it very pro- bable, yt the greatest Descent of the Spirits in the Thermometer, was on Decr 30 1708, when y Glass was within one tenth of an inch low as it is wth Artificial Freezing with now or Ice & Salt. And in the late Frost was almost, if no altogether, as low. The Freezing-Point of my Thermometer Is 10 inches (wch I call 100 degrees) above the Globe of Spirits; & the most intense Freezing (ac- cording to the methods I have mentioned in at Transaction) is just at, or very little within the Ball. And on Jan. 30 about Sun-rising the Thermometer was but an inch, or 10gr above the point of extreme Freezing; & on Febr. 3, at only half an inch, or 5gr. And considering that Fol. 193 the Thermometer I observed with in 1708, was much less accurate, & differenlt graduated from that wch I now have, I am apt to think, that the Frost on Feb. 3 last, was altogether as intense as yt on Dec 30 1708. For although a Frigori- fick Mixture sunk the Spirits but one tenth lower in the Old Thermometer, & about 5 or 6 tenths in that I now observe with, yet I take the Difference to be little, or none at all, by reason of the tenderness of the New above the Old Glass. And this degree of Cold, I take to be as ex- cessive, as in any of the years mentioned in the said Transactions; yea any of the Years, what the Thames at London was frozen over: I am sure than in the year 1716, when that River was frozen over for several miles, and Booths & streets were made on the Ice; an Ox roasted there- on, &c. For the lowest point of Freezing in 1716 was on Jan 7, when the Spirits fell to 35gr on- ly of the Glass I now make use. But the true cause of the Freezing of the Thames yt year, was not barely the Excess of the Cold, but ye long continuance of it. Which also was the principal cause of those remarkable Congela- tions of yt River in 1683, & 1708, when I saw coaches driven over the Ice, large Fires made on it, &c. I am wth great respect Hond Sr Yours Wm Derham I have just rigged up & tryed the Reflecting 8 foot Telescope I had of Mr Molyneuxes grinding, & find it admirable.

Derham was a Church of England clergyman and a natural philosopher, interested in nature, mathematics, and philosophy. He frequently requested medical advice from Sloane, and likely served as a physician to his family and parishioners (Marja Smolenaars, Derham, William (16571735), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7528, accessed 7 June 2011]).



Patient Details

Suffering Venereal Disease in the Early Eighteenth Century

Posted on March 5, 2013 by - Databases, Early Modern History, History of Medicine, Patients, Remedies

Lindsey Fitzharris (@ChirurgeonsAppr) recently discussed deformities caused by syphilis and the problems of prevention using early condoms (“Syphilis: A Love Story”). She also regularly tweets horrifying pictures of syphilis sufferers in the past, or the raddled syphilitic bones that remain. Evocative stuff.

One of the less revolting images. Head illustrating syptoms of syphilis, 1632. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

But the day-to-day life of someone suffering from venereal disease wasn’t always so dramatic. Some Sloane letters hint at the physical and emotional experiences of those suffering from long-term venereal complaints.

In the early eighteenth century, many venereal symptoms were not immediately obvious to people. The skin rashes, pustules and chancres of late stage gonorrhoea might easily be confused with syphilis, which in turn could be mistaken for scurvy. Treatments for syphilis and scurvy might even be the same: the underlying problem seen as being hot and corrosive or a matter of poisoned blood. As William Salmon explained in a popular remedy book (1703), his family pills would cure, along with other diseases, “the Scurvy (the only reigning disease in this Kingdom) when it is grown so bad, as to become scandalous, so as many People think it to be the POX”.[1] To further confuse matters, any whitish discharge from the genitals—known as ‘whites’ in women, ‘gleets’ in men or ‘running of the reins’ in all— was potentially classed as a gonorrhoea. Gonorrhoea, they believed, might be caused by masturbation or accidents to the lower back, not just sexual intercourse.

The problem of diagnosis can be seen in the letters of Thomas Hewitt, Roger Cook and J. Hopson. In 1721, Hewitt treated an unnamed gentleman aged 60, described as being scorbutic (e.g. ulcerated skin, lethargy and pallor). The patient’s main troubles, though, were a continual need to defecate and rectal pain. He had several rectal growths, which were voiding a frothy substance. Hewitt was obviously of two minds about the cause of the ailments. Although he had administered mercurial purges (treatment for syphilis), he also insisted that the patient was “an honest trustworthy gentleman”. Sloane, incidentally, also prescribed a typical syphilis treatment: salivation. Cook, in his undated letter, reported suffering from weakness caused by a constant gleet and nocturnal pollutions. Although he didn’t specify gonorrhoea, this would have been a suspicion. Hopson, for example, immediately suspected gonorrhoea when he had “running of the reins” for a couple days.

The physical experience of venereal problems and their treatments was inevitably painful, though they varied widely. Henry Downing reported that he’d had a three-month salivation to treat venereal disease when he was in his twenties. By 1726, he was ricketty, frail, and sedentary. His physical symptoms included pain throughout his body; heart palpitations; heat and pain in his anus, scrotum and urethra; difficulty urinating; and scaly rough skin. A pretty miserable existence.

Hewitt’s patient took opiates to deal with his pain, or indeed perhaps some of his other treatments. In order to drain the pus, Hewitt had dilated his patient’s anal supporation with a sponge. Mercurial treatments also generally required extensive bed rest, owing the various leakages, skin eruptions, and tooth loosening. Not so different from the symptoms of syphilis it was meant to be treating!

The case of Mr Campbell, aged 63, also suggests the long-term health problems that people thought might occur. Thomas Molyneaux and other medical practitioners wrote to Sloane on Campbell’s behalf in 1724. While not obviously venereal symptoms, Molyneaux saw Campbell’s experience of clap in 1685 as significant. Campbell had trouble urinating afterwards. By 1724, Campbell had a blockage in the bladder, pain while sitting, and a hot and burning sensation in the urethra. He was also voiding slime instead of urine.

Worse yet, failure to disclose one’s venereal condition could be fatal. In August 1725, J. Hetherington wrote to Sloane about the death of a young man after being inoculated for smallpox. The underlying concern was that the inoculation, a novel treatment championed by Sloane, might have caused the death. Hethrington was adamant that the patient, who had not been in the “correct habit”, was the one to blame. The young man had failed to tell the inoculation surgeon about his venereal disease and recent treatment. (A physician applied a plaster to his swollen scrotum.) The treatment had successfully reduced the inflammation, but a fever started the next day. This, Hetherington was certain, caused the complications with the inoculation.

Given that these men were blamed for their poor bodily condition, stemming from lack of self-control, no wonder shame and fear were constant companions for the venereal sufferer. There are relatively few letters to Sloane discussing sexual problems of any kind, and some—such as that by E.W.—were anonymous.[2] Embarrassment might also suggest why Hetherington’s patient did not tell the surgeon. Once his problem was apparently gone, there was no need to tell anyone else, including the surgeon, about it. A sufferers’ physical condition also needs to be considered alongside his emotional one. Patients listed fear (Downing and Hopson), weariness (Downing), and melancholy (Hewitt’s patient) among their symptoms. Pain in early modern England was seen as simultaneously physical and emotional.

As their bodies leaked in unseemly ways and their skin turned ulcerated or rough, the sufferers who wrote to Sloane must have been terrified at what fate might yet await them: the fallen noses, blindness or ulcerated skin of syphilis or the swollen testicles and impotence of gonorrhoea.  And above all, they had only themselves to blame.


[1] William Salmon, Collectanea Medica, the Country Physician (London, 1703), p. 452.

[2] Women in particular are absent. This may partly be because of the many ways in which the ‘whites’ might be interepreted medically, if symptoms were present at all. Hopson had asked “the woman”, but she claimed to have no symptoms. As we know today, many women never have any symptoms. Women and their physicians might, deliberately or not, be able to avoid a more shameful venereal diagnosis that called the woman’s behaviour, or that of their husbands, into question.

On shame, see for example K. Siena, Venereal Disease, Hospitals and the Urban Poor: London’s Foul Wards, 1600-1800 (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2004).

On the moral implications of leaky bodies, see L.W. Smith, “The Body Embarrassed? Rethinking the Leaky Male Body in Eighteenth-Century England and France“, Gender and History 23, 1 (2011): 26-46.

Two great blog posts on v.d. (by Jennifer Evans) appeared just after I’d published this one!  One is on “The Secret Disease” and the other is on “Beauty and the Pox“.

Choosing the Countryside: Women, Health and Power in the Eighteenth Century

Posted on March 8, 2013 by - Early Modern History, Family, Gender History, History of Medicine, Patients

To honour International Women’s Day today, I have decided to return to my roots as a women’s historian. I first became a historian for feminist reasons: to recover women’s past and to understand the relationships among culture, body, gender, and status.

The control women had over their bodies has often been a staple topic of feminism and women’s medical history. We love to dig out (largely nineteenth and twentieth century) stories about the horrors inflicted upon women’s bodies: clitorodectomies, forced sterilisation, and more. They make for chilling telling. Or perhaps we look back to Antiquity: women as monsters or inferior, inverted men. We find the tales about menstrual blood being poisonous. It’s easy, surrounded by such stories, to assume that the goal of medicine has been about controlling women.

But the reality is far more complicated.

In the early eighteenth century, the misogynistic medical theories of inferiority, for example, were seldom practiced. All bodies were treated as humoral bodies, with specific temperaments that were individual to a patient. Medicine was highly interventionist (and often ineffective) for both sexes. And, more to the point, medical practitioners were dependent on their patients for success. This was not just in terms of payment or patronage.[1] . In an age before anaesthesia, or even stethoscopes, doctors and surgeons were unable to look inside the living body: patients’ stories were invaluable tools in diagnosis. Women could have much control over their own health.

Promising? Not exactly. These women’s choices were still limited in a multitude of ways. The ability to make decisions about one’s own body, whether historically or today, is an important marker of women’s equality. An old argument, perhaps, but one that is as true now as ever. When talking about control in the modern world, it often comes down to topics such as abortion or female genital mutilation. The dullness of day-to-day inequality is easy to overlook when there are more pressing issues.

Back in the eighteenth century, the fundamental inequalities within society can often be seen within the household. Women might, for example, have been well-treated by physicians–but, as letters to physician Hans Sloane show, their ability to make medical decisions was limited by something even more fundamental: access to money.

John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex (1816). From: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA (Wikimedia Commons).

A husband could decide when and how a woman saw a doctor. In 1715, physician William Lilly commented that his patient Lady Suffolk was well enough to travel to London from her countryside residence in order to see Sloane, but only “if my Lord thinks fitt to bring her”.[2] Even when a  woman was pleased with her medical care, her husband might choose another course of treatment, as one unnamed doctor complained. He had been treating Lady Salisbury in 1727, who agreed with his recommendation that she should go to the countryside while she recuperated. Lord Salisbury, however, had other ideas. He dismissed the unnamed physician, instead turning over his wife’s care to Dr. Hale. No reasons were given for the change.[3]

Whether or not a woman received care was also up to her husband. Although the head of a household was obliged to provide medical care for everyone within it, the extent of the care needed was open to dispute.[4] Mrs A. Smith, for example, found that her treatments in Bath were useful, but her husband refused to continue paying. Someone, she believed, “has told Mr Smith that I am very well and I only pretend illness to stay in Towne”. Her dependence on Mr Smith’s decisions was clear. She noted that she was unhappy, since “all my Ease depends a pone Mr Smith’s opinion of me”. Worried that she would become more ill if her husband sent her to the countryside, she begged Sloane to intervene by “tell[ing] him how you thinke me”.[5]

Family members might try to help if they believed a woman’s health was being affected by her husband’s choices, but this was complicated and not always successful. The law, after all, ultimately upheld the power of a husband over his wife. Jane Roupell wrote to Sloane about her daughter, Lady Anne Ilay, on the grounds that her son-in-law had weakened her daughter’s health through his lack of care. Mrs. Roupell asked if Sloane might visit before seeing her daughter, so she could “tell you somthings that she is ashamed to tell her selfe”. It would be best, she thought, if her daughter could recover away from her husband–perhaps, she suggested, Sloane might recommend that Lady Ilay be sent to the countryside.[6]

The countryside in these four letters becomes alternatively a place of health, a place of isolation or a place of refuge. Although we’ve moved on a lot since the eighteenth century, there are two basic women’s health issues that underpinned these seemingly simple disputes about going to the countryside: access to health care and finances.

Most often, the Sloane correspondence provides examples of women’s families wanting the best for their wives and daughters, but women were always in precarious positions. Each woman came from a wealthy background and had doctors (such as Sloane) who were potential allies, but as the cases show, women could not simply choose what treatment they wanted without consulting their families. One thing was clear: it was ultimately up to their husbands what a woman’s medical treatment should be.


[1] See for example, Wendy Churchill, Female Patients in Early Modern Britain (Ashgate, 2012).

[2] British Library Sloane MS 4076, f. 14, 28 July 1715.

[3] British Library Sloane MS 4078, f. 304, 26 March 1727/8.

[4] Catherine Crawford, “Patients’ Rights and the Law of Contract in Eighteenth-century England”, Social History of Medicine 13 (2000): 381-410.

[5] British Library Sloane MS 4077, f. 37, n.d.

[6] British Library Sloane MS 4060, f. 203, f. 204, n.d.

A longer version of this argument appears in: L.W. Smith, “Reassessing the Role of the Family: Women’s Medical Care in Eighteenth-Century England”, Social History of Medicine 16, 3 (2003): 327-342.

Letter 1427

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

William Derham to Hans Sloane – February 21, 1709


Item info

Date: February 21, 1709
Author: William Derham
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4041
Folio: ff. 296-297


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 297] Sr Upmr Feb: 21 1708/9 I have lately recd Dr Newtons Answer from Flo- rence wch I have send you, wherein tou will find his willingness to accept the Societies favr of being chosen into their Number. And by the speediness of his Ansr to that past of my Lr, & his passing over other material matters I have sent about, I imagine that the sooner the favour can be done, the more acceptable it will be. The Papers which he mentions as sent wth his Lr, I shall bring to you when I can get next to London; which I intend as soon as I can. You will find by the enclosed, That in Italy the cold hath this winter been very intense, as well as in England. If by Twelf-Day his excellencie means our Jan: 6th my Thermometer was then very low. But if he means Jan: 6 N.S (as probably he doth) I find the Italian Cold preceded ours 2 or 3 days. For the days before Jan 6: N.S were warm, yt day it began to freeze; the two next days were sharper frost, wth snow: but the Night after the fol- lowing day, viz the Night between Dec: 29 & 30 O.S my Themr was much lower than ever it was since I began my Observations therewith in ye year 1698. Ans as his Excellence saith they wanted but half a Degree of the extremity in Italy on Dec: 26 (as I imagine their Twelf-Day was) so at 7 of clock in the morning of Dec: 30 my Thermometer descended with- in to of an inch of the very point to wch I formerly (for a tryal) forced my Spirits down with artificial Freezing wth Snow & Salt. I have been informed yt your Thermr in Town have this winter been lower than in the Great Frost, altho not on the same day yt mine was. The reason of wch I conceive to be either from the different temperature of your City, & our Countrey air: or rather from the different Freezing within & without doors; my Thermomr being allways kept without doors, in the open air; & your Glasses in London yt I have had any informations from, being kept within doors. Speaking of Artificial Freezing, give me leave to suggest one curiosity about it, & that is That after you have made the Spirits contract as much as is possible wth snow and salt, you may force them yet lower, & that somewhat considerably, by pouring upon your Frigorifick Mixture Spir. of Wine. I know other have observed yt snow & So: V will together freeze; but I do not know whether they have observed yt it will encrease the strength of Snow & Salt, or whether it will do more wth Snow or Ice than Salt can, Now the cold goeth off, & gives a relaxation to my Fingers & Ink, I being to think Of drawing up a Table of Dr Scheuchzers, Dr Tillies & my own Observations for the Socities Use, being highly obliged to be ever Their & Your most humble servant Wm Derham

Derham was a Church of England clergyman and a natural philosopher, interested in nature, mathematics, and philosophy. He frequently requested medical advice from Sloane, and likely served as a physician to his family and parishioners (Marja Smolenaars, “Derham, William (1657-1735)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7528, accessed 7 June 2011]).



Patient Details

Storms, Sounds and Authorship

Posted on January 12, 2015 by - Databases, Early Modern History, Environment History, Experimentation, Hans Sloane, History of Science, Letter-writing, Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society, Scholarship

The wind has been wildly whipping the last few days, putting me on edge. It doesn’t help that the wind makes the neighbourhood noisier than usual: clanking gates, blowing cans… The normally distant rumble of the tube train suddenly passes right down our street, while the planes seem to fly right over our roof. The weather can do funny things to sound.

Tableau of William Derham (1657 – 1735), an English clergyman and natural philosopher. Source: Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Palthrow.

Tableau of William Derham (1657 – 1735), an English clergyman and natural philosopher. Source: Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Palthrow.

Back in 1708, William Derham was inspired by his observations on weather and sound to publish on the motion of sound in the Philosophical Transactions. Derham’s letters to Sloane show how Derham had carefully thought about the subject for years before his article appeared. Academic writers will have much sympathy for Derham’s path toward publication.

In January 1704/5, Derham was confident that he was “setteling the business of the Flight of Sounds, which may be of good use”. He had ten questions and was happy to add more if anyone in the Royal Society had any; by the time he published, there were nineteen questions. Derham was charting the sound of gunfire to determine what factors affected sound, such as the type of winds and weather, size of gun, time of day, and direction of the shot.

Many credible authorities, from the Florentine Academy to Isaac Newton, had differed on the question of “What Space Sounds fly in a Second or any determinate Time?” To settle the matter, Derham repeated their experiments and at greater distances. The answer seemed close:

I have allmost satisfied my self about all the former Enquiries, which when I have fully done I will impart it to the Society. I only want a few Guns from the Tower or some such large distance (which I could see in the Evening) to fully confirm what I have already done.

Derham was more guarded by April 1705. He reported that he was not as close to finishing his experiments as he’d hoped. Having met “with fresh matters” that nobody had ever observed before, he was “cautious of determining any thing precipitatly; & therefore I shall yet delay giving the Society an account of what I have done”.

Lithograph by C.H. Bacle, 19th century. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

A light-hearted picture, but I hasten to add that Derham did not use women’s skirts to test his theories on sound. Lithograph by C.H. Bacle, 19th century. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

What he could tell them was that “Storms do accelerate Sounds, wch I did not discover (only suspect) till last Fryday” when he had been timing the sound of guns fired at Blackheath. Contrary winds resulted in delays, while high winds sped the sounds up. But to test his theory, he needed more guns. Derham reassured Sloane that he would “use my greatest care in all this matter” because his newest observations differed so greatly from those of others–and “perhaps the Societys reputation my be somewhat hurt by any neglect or want of an act”.

In December 1706, Derham was still working on the project. He had only just found “an excellent semi-circle to take the Angles, & thereby the distances of the places from whence I observed the Flight of Sounds”. This, he noted, “was the only thing that hath delayed the me from imparting my Observations on that subject.” And in April 1707, he referred in passing to using triangulation to measure sound.

Finally, Derham sent off his observations in February 1707/8. His letter hints at his relief, as well as his hope that the article would be published as soon as possible.

I have sent you my Observations about Sounds; which as it hath cost me some pains, so I hope will be acceptable to you, & the most illustrious Society. If you think it worth publishing in the Transactions, I desire you will be pleased to put it into one of the next.

A week later, Derham’s anxiety emerges more clearly when he wondered whether Sloane had even received the article: “Be pleased to let me know whether you recd my account of Sounds with my Packet of Lrs from Florence.”

The article was intended to be Derham’s Important Work (and it was), appearing as it did in Latin rather than the English he usually used for his Phil. Trans. submissions. It also took up a full thirty-three pages. With his careful measurements, increased distances, and use of instruments, Derham provided a more accurate assessment of the speed of sound than previous scholars.

It’s just a shame that Derham never mentioned his mysterious Japanese (?) co-author anywhere in his letters to Sloane…

According to a data entry howler error in the online Phil. Trans., Soni Motu was the first author on the article. How’s that for revisioning history?

Soni Moto

Letter 2213

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – November 21, 1717


Item info

Date: November 21, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 68-71


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 68] Worthy Sr The Kind Reception of my Last Incourages me to goo on with this, wch Relates to A Cold Water wch I mentioned in my last at St Faiths in ye Parrish of St Johns of Guanaboo about 14 Miles from St. Iago dela Vego: the Tryalls I made of it in About 18 years Past, since wch I have lost most of my Notes and Observations I made Uppon it but what Remains in my memory I shall freely Impart: Walking along in a Small River at St Faiths above said where the Banks of each side are very high and shaded with Pleasant Green Trees, I spied [?] Some Shineing Sticking to the sides of the Banks of ye River, their luster Obliged me to make a farther search into the Banks: wch I found (after A Thin Clay bed was taken off) as it were A perpend=icular Wall of Square Fleaky Stones as it Placed by Art with some Clefts or large partments [?] where was as if Thrust in; Beds of White and Blew Morter, wch Upon handling Stuck Close to the fingers like Stiff Clay smelling So Strong of Sulphur enough to strike one down when first taken out of ye Rocks; wch was full of fine Glitte=rring Particles and some Lumps as bigg as the largest Diamond and when washed Clean from ye Earth Appeared very bright and Glittering like Pollisht stool or that Oar (the Spaniard Calls) Espajado: Upon further search=es into ye Bank wee found a large shelf (as Miners Call it) or Veins of Oar Continguous one to the Other about a yard Broad about 11 or 12 in Number of Divers Colours but Cheifly Blewish or Black, like Spanish Oar Called Soroches or Tacana and Running or Dipping Down inwards under the River: the more and lower wee Dugg the larger the Veins appeard: and when wee had Dugg about 4 or 5 foot Perpendicular A Water issued out of Several Veins so fast that wee were forced to give over our Inquisitive Search: (unless wee had Proper Ingions or Instruments to Clear it) wch if wee had and gone on I on not but Wee had come at A Rich mine And in this Water I made my Observations as followeth: The first think I took Notice off was that A Negro man that had a very Great Swelling on His Legg who working in the mine was Accidentally Cured by standing in that Water: The Negro seeing that He put in A Clean and Bright peece of Silver into this Mineral Water and it Immediately Turned it off a Copporous Colour this put me Upon a farther Inquiery into the Nature and quality of the Water, and Here I was at a Stand and Puzzled how to make an estimate or General Judgment of ye Water: for Observing a Number of Small Streams coming through Several and Different Mineral Veins Judged that each Stream might partake of that quality the mineral was off, and as some veins were more sulphurous Other more Saline, there must be A Strange Mixture of Boath: but Upon Tryal with Galls would but barely Ting [word missing] Turn Black Notwithstanding and of the Veins being Obviously Different from the Rest and Upon Trying that by its self found it to Superabound in Salt: the manner I Tried it is as followeth I took about A pound of the Oar Clean Washed Dryed and put it in A Crucible and gave it A Strong Heat Stirring it until all its Brightness Disappeard, and when Cold I put it into a Glazzed Pot ouring on it A quart of Water Stirring it very Well and when Settled Decanted of the Clear Water into wch I put in about 8 grains of Galls wch Turned the Water as Black as Ink in 15 minutes time and by Evaporation and Crystallization Could gaine A pure fine Copporous Salt or Green Vitrial like al Martis: But I Could not doo see with any of the Rest of the Veins wch seemed all to abound with Sulphur and would not Tinge, or if they had any salt it was not Ferruginous but more of the Nature of those in the Hot Bath I mentioned before: and may be Judg accordingly [several words blurred] Mineral Water at St Faiths abounds more of Sulphur than of Salts and to Inquier into the Nature of the Sulphur it abounds with is A Difficult Matter, every Mineral or Metal (as is Said) to have its Peculiar Sulphur wch is Called by Some Its Masculine Seed and Nature First [fol. 69] First Agent in all Generation of Metals come Near to Elemental Fire Differing from Common Sulphur but this by Way of Digression and to Returne: I took A Small quantity of the Oar in General without Respect to any Particular Vein and Sublimed it of which I gained a large quantity of Red Flowers like those of Antimony with its undigested Mercury (and therefore by some is Called its Malignant Sulphur I also took about 12 ounces of a Particular Vein like that Oar the Spaniards Call Soroches wch by Fuseing it with A Strong Fluxing Fire in A Wind Furnace I Could Gett one ounce of A Pure Regulas as bright as any Starr of Antimony wch after 3 or 4 Meltings I gave A Negro Woman 8 grains of it, wch gave Her 9 or 10 Stools and one large Vomit bringing Up a large Stomack Worm and after she had took the same dose 3 or 4 times it altogether wrote downwards and took away A very Large Tumor She had Upon Her Thigh for some time before; So that it appears (in my Judgment by those Tryalls and some Others I made upon this St Faiths Water to be Impregnated with an Antimonial Sulphur A Vitriolick Salt, and if So I Leave you Sr: to Judge who is a better Judge than I off the Great Virtue and efficacy this Water must have in most Distempers incident to Human bodys This I Can assure and Assert that I saw an Hydropicall Person So Swelled that None of His Cloathes would come on Him and was Carried up to St Faiths in Blanketts to Drink this mineral Water who was in A Short time brought So long or small that His common Wareing Cloathes were much to bigg for Him and Remain in A good State of Health many years after it, I also know one Mr Smallwood Nephew to that Dr Smallwood you Mention in page 55 Introd: that was Cured of His Wound by a Poisned Arrow with Contrayerva the Virtues of Wch I Shall mention Hereafter This Smallwood was so swelled Upwards that He Could not Lye Down in His bed was Cured in six Weeks time by Drinking St Faiths Water Another Gentleman that Labourd under an Ascites was Cured by Drinking this Water at 30 Miles Distance only Now and then when the Water Did not Work by Stool (for it Never fails Working by Urine) an ounce or two of Sal Nitro Dissolved in the Mineral Water wch would give Many Watery Stools for 3 or 4 Days together Many Other Cured I see performed by this Wonderfull Medecinal Water to Tedious Here to Insert and May I Not Now ask the Question without offence since Jamaica so much abounds with Mines and Minerals why some of them if they were Nicely search[ed] or Lookt into might not be as Rich as any of their Neighbours: Mounsr. Galdy affirmed to me A little before I Left Jamaica that He had been up at Hyspaniola where the French had lately found a Rich Silver Mine; it is Certain the Mountains and easternmost Part of the Island of Jamaica Abounds with mines and Minerals and are frequently found more and more wch occasions as (some say) the Night Breezes to be so unholsom Raymundas saith that Vitriol is very Near A kind to Gold and hath Same Original and Principle its Certain there is A great Deal of Excellent Sulphur in Vitriol Paracelsus Accounts it A 3d part of Physick: than as to Antinomy wch is Another Quality The Island Abounds with Valentino Sayeth that its Sulphur is Equavilent to Potable Gold: and the Embry of Mettals and is found in Oruro Upon the [fol. 70] Upon the Main in Peruo in their Silver Oars and Why then Should wee not have Silver Oars in Jamaica Since wee have the same MIenralls with all the Symptoms they Carry and found in Silver Mines: (but this by the By) There is Near Round Hill in Camp Sevanna in the Parish of Vero a little Distant from Milk River (wch is very Brackish) 3 or 4 little Pitts or Holes of Water comeing from under the Round Hill wch Stands by its self in A Plain Sevanna Noo Other mountain being Near it in 8 or 9 Miles its Many Hundred feet High with a Blutt [?] Top: wch Water is a little Hotter than Blood Running ye Veins and in Cryed Up Mightly for Curing of Ulcers Achs and Pains, but Upon Strickt Inquiry I found it more Opinion then Matter of fact and by what Tryalls I made off it it Abounded with Common Marine Salt for out of 16 ounces of the Water I Could Gett six Drams of A Square grained Salt and noo appearance of Nitro as Some People would have it: as for its Warmth or Heat I Cannot Account for unless its Accasioned by a Rapid Motion it seems to have in the mountain by its Noise it makes within wch mountain is Running you mention Introd: p: 11 the Salt Water made into Salt by the Heat of the Sun wch was soo in your time, But Since the Earth quake in 1692 was Observed that there is no Such Salt to be found the Reason (as some say) that the Earthquake broak up the foundation of those Places and Destroyed the Rock of Salt its self whch was supposed the Seed to Lye in Which Turned the Rest of the Heating Waters with the Heat of the Sun into Salt. Wch is now wholly Lost those Place Remaining ever Since Over flowed and Now Turn to Salt: Much mony hath been Spent Since to make Salt but no Noo Purpose: and Now I Shall Leave these Hydrophanticall Observations to your serious Consideration and Candid Jud [fol. 71] Judgement and Opinion of these my mean undertakeing and as Received shall goo on; I wallways Remaining your most Humble Devoted Servant to Command at all times and in all Places Henry Barham Carter Lane November 21: D: 4: 1717

Henry Barham (1670?-1726) was a botanist. He lived in Jamaica and corresponded with Sloane on the plant and animal life of the island. Parts of Barham’s letters to Sloane appeared in the latter’s Natural History of Jamaica (T. F. Henderson, Barham, Henry (1670?1726), rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1374, accessed 13 June 2011]).



Patient Details

Letter 2216

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – November 21, 1717


Item info

Date: November 21, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 68-71


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 68] Worthy Sr The Kind Reception of my Last Incourages me to goo on with this, wch Relates to A Cold Water wch I mentioned in my last at St Faiths in ye Parrish of St Johns of Guanaboo about 14 Miles from St. Iago dela Vego: the Tryalls I made of it in About 18 years Past, since wch I have lost most of my Notes and Observations I made Uppon it but what Remains in my memory I shall freely Impart: Walking along in a Small River at St Faiths above said where the Banks of each side are very high and shaded with Pleasant Green Trees, I spied [?] Some Shineing Sticking to the sides of the Banks of ye River, their luster Obliged me to make a farther search into the Banks: wch I found (after A Thin Clay bed was taken off) as it were A perpend=icular Wall of Square Fleaky Stones as it Placed by Art with some Clefts or large partments [?] where was as if Thrust in; Beds of White and Blew Morter, wch Upon handling Stuck Close to the fingers like Stiff Clay smelling So Strong of Sulphur enough to strike one down when first taken out of ye Rocks; wch was full of fine Glitte=rring Particles and some Lumps as bigg as the largest Diamond and when washed Clean from ye Earth Appeared very bright and Glittering like Pollisht stool or that Oar (the Spaniard Calls) Espajado: Upon further search=es into ye Bank wee found a large shelf (as Miners Call it) or Veins of Oar Continguous one to the Other about a yard Broad about 11 or 12 in Number of Divers Colours but Cheifly Blewish or Black, like Spanish Oar Called Soroches or Tacana and Running or Dipping Down inwards under the River: the more and lower wee Dugg the larger the Veins appeard: and when wee had Dugg about 4 or 5 foot Perpendicular A Water issued out of Several Veins so fast that wee were forced to give over our Inquisitive Search: (unless wee had Proper Ingions or Instruments to Clear it) wch if wee had and gone on I on not but Wee had come at A Rich mine And in this Water I made my Observations as followeth: The first think I took Notice off was that A Negro man that had a very Great Swelling on His Legg who working in the mine was Accidentally Cured by standing in that Water: The Negro seeing that He put in A Clean and Bright peece of Silver into this Mineral Water and it Immediately Turned it off a Copporous Colour this put me Upon a farther Inquiery into the Nature and quality of the Water, and Here I was at a Stand and Puzzled how to make an estimate or General Judgment of ye Water: for Observing a Number of Small Streams coming through Several and Different Mineral Veins Judged that each Stream might partake of that quality the mineral was off, and as some veins were more sulphurous Other more Saline, there must be A Strange Mixture of Boath: but Upon Tryal with Galls would but barely Ting [word missing] Turn Black Notwithstanding and of the Veins being Obviously Different from the Rest and Upon Trying that by its self found it to Superabound in Salt: the manner I Tried it is as followeth I took about A pound of the Oar Clean Washed Dryed and put it in A Crucible and gave it A Strong Heat Stirring it until all its Brightness Disappeard, and when Cold I put it into a Glazzed Pot ouring on it A quart of Water Stirring it very Well and when Settled Decanted of the Clear Water into wch I put in about 8 grains of Galls wch Turned the Water as Black as Ink in 15 minutes time and by Evaporation and Crystallization Could gaine A pure fine Copporous Salt or Green Vitrial like al Martis: But I Could not doo see with any of the Rest of the Veins wch seemed all to abound with Sulphur and would not Tinge, or if they had any salt it was not Ferruginous but more of the Nature of those in the Hot Bath I mentioned before: and may be Judg accordingly [several words blurred] Mineral Water at St Faiths abounds more of Sulphur than of Salts and to Inquier into the Nature of the Sulphur it abounds with is A Difficult Matter, every Mineral or Metal (as is Said) to have its Peculiar Sulphur wch is Called by Some Its Masculine Seed and Nature First [fol. 69] First Agent in all Generation of Metals come Near to Elemental Fire Differing from Common Sulphur but this by Way of Digression and to Returne: I took A Small quantity of the Oar in General without Respect to any Particular Vein and Sublimed it of which I gained a large quantity of Red Flowers like those of Antimony with its undigested Mercury (and therefore by some is Called its Malignant Sulphur I also took about 12 ounces of a Particular Vein like that Oar the Spaniards Call Soroches wch by Fuseing it with A Strong Fluxing Fire in A Wind Furnace I Could Gett one ounce of A Pure Regulas as bright as any Starr of Antimony wch after 3 or 4 Meltings I gave A Negro Woman 8 grains of it, wch gave Her 9 or 10 Stools and one large Vomit bringing Up a large Stomack Worm and after she had took the same dose 3 or 4 times it altogether wrote downwards and took away A very Large Tumor She had Upon Her Thigh for some time before; So that it appears (in my Judgment by those Tryalls and some Others I made upon this St Faiths Water to be Impregnated with an Antimonial Sulphur A Vitriolick Salt, and if So I Leave you Sr: to Judge who is a better Judge than I off the Great Virtue and efficacy this Water must have in most Distempers incident to Human bodys This I Can assure and Assert that I saw an Hydropicall Person So Swelled that None of His Cloathes would come on Him and was Carried up to St Faiths in Blanketts to Drink this mineral Water who was in A Short time brought So long or small that His common Wareing Cloathes were much to bigg for Him and Remain in A good State of Health many years after it, I also know one Mr Smallwood Nephew to that Dr Smallwood you Mention in page 55 Introd: that was Cured of His Wound by a Poisned Arrow with Contrayerva the Virtues of Wch I Shall mention Hereafter This Smallwood was so swelled Upwards that He Could not Lye Down in His bed was Cured in six Weeks time by Drinking St Faiths Water Another Gentleman that Labourd under an Ascites was Cured by Drinking this Water at 30 Miles Distance only Now and then when the Water Did not Work by Stool (for it Never fails Working by Urine) an ounce or two of Sal Nitro Dissolved in the Mineral Water wch would give Many Watery Stools for 3 or 4 Days together Many Other Cured I see performed by this Wonderfull Medecinal Water to Tedious Here to Insert and May I Not Now ask the Question without offence since Jamaica so much abounds with Mines and Minerals why some of them if they were Nicely search[ed] or Lookt into might not be as Rich as any of their Neighbours: Mounsr. Galdy affirmed to me A little before I Left Jamaica that He had been up at Hyspaniola where the French had lately found a Rich Silver Mine; it is Certain the Mountains and easternmost Part of the Island of Jamaica Abounds with mines and Minerals and are frequently found more and more wch occasions as (some say) the Night Breezes to be so unholsom Raymundas saith that Vitriol is very Near A kind to Gold and hath Same Original and Principle its Certain there is A great Deal of Excellent Sulphur in Vitriol Paracelsus Accounts it A 3d part of Physick: than as to Antinomy wch is Another Quality The Island Abounds with Valentino Sayeth that its Sulphur is Equavilent to Potable Gold: and the Embry of Mettals and is found in Oruro Upon the [fol. 70] Upon the Main in Peruo in their Silver Oars and Why then Should wee not have Silver Oars in Jamaica Since wee have the same MIenralls with all the Symptoms they Carry and found in Silver Mines: (but this by the By) There is Near Round Hill in Camp Sevanna in the Parish of Vero a little Distant from Milk River (wch is very Brackish) 3 or 4 little Pitts or Holes of Water comeing from under the Round Hill wch Stands by its self in A Plain Sevanna Noo Other mountain being Near it in 8 or 9 Miles its Many Hundred feet High with a Blutt [?] Top: wch Water is a little Hotter than Blood Running ye Veins and in Cryed Up Mightly for Curing of Ulcers Achs and Pains, but Upon Strickt Inquiry I found it more Opinion then Matter of fact and by what Tryalls I made off it it Abounded with Common Marine Salt for out of 16 ounces of the Water I Could Gett six Drams of A Square grained Salt and noo appearance of Nitro as Some People would have it: as for its Warmth or Heat I Cannot Account for unless its Accasioned by a Rapid Motion it seems to have in the mountain by its Noise it makes within wch mountain is Running you mention Introd: p: 11 the Salt Water made into Salt by the Heat of the Sun wch was soo in your time, But Since the Earth quake in 1692 was Observed that there is no Such Salt to be found the Reason (as some say) that the Earthquake broak up the foundation of those Places and Destroyed the Rock of Salt its self whch was supposed the Seed to Lye in Which Turned the Rest of the Heating Waters with the Heat of the Sun into Salt. Wch is now wholly Lost those Place Remaining ever Since Over flowed and Now Turn to Salt: Much mony hath been Spent Since to make Salt but no Noo Purpose: and Now I Shall Leave these Hydrophanticall Observations to your serious Consideration and Candid Jud [fol. 71] Judgement and Opinion of these my mean undertakeing and as Received shall goo on; I wallways Remaining your most Humble Devoted Servant to Command at all times and in all Places Henry Barham Carter Lane November 21: D: 4: 1717

Henry Barham (1670?-1726) was a botanist. He lived in Jamaica and corresponded with Sloane on the plant and animal life of the island. Parts of Barham’s letters to Sloane appeared in the latter’s Natural History of Jamaica (T. F. Henderson, Barham, Henry (1670?1726), rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1374, accessed 13 June 2011]).



Patient Details

Letter 2215

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – November 21, 1717


Item info

Date: November 21, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 68-71


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 68] Worthy Sr The Kind Reception of my Last Incourages me to goo on with this, wch Relates to A Cold Water wch I mentioned in my last at St Faiths in ye Parrish of St Johns of Guanaboo about 14 Miles from St. Iago dela Vego: the Tryalls I made of it in About 18 years Past, since wch I have lost most of my Notes and Observations I made Uppon it but what Remains in my memory I shall freely Impart: Walking along in a Small River at St Faiths above said where the Banks of each side are very high and shaded with Pleasant Green Trees, I spied [?] Some Shineing Sticking to the sides of the Banks of ye River, their luster Obliged me to make a farther search into the Banks: wch I found (after A Thin Clay bed was taken off) as it were A perpend=icular Wall of Square Fleaky Stones as it Placed by Art with some Clefts or large partments [?] where was as if Thrust in; Beds of White and Blew Morter, wch Upon handling Stuck Close to the fingers like Stiff Clay smelling So Strong of Sulphur enough to strike one down when first taken out of ye Rocks; wch was full of fine Glitte=rring Particles and some Lumps as bigg as the largest Diamond and when washed Clean from ye Earth Appeared very bright and Glittering like Pollisht stool or that Oar (the Spaniard Calls) Espajado: Upon further search=es into ye Bank wee found a large shelf (as Miners Call it) or Veins of Oar Continguous one to the Other about a yard Broad about 11 or 12 in Number of Divers Colours but Cheifly Blewish or Black, like Spanish Oar Called Soroches or Tacana and Running or Dipping Down inwards under the River: the more and lower wee Dugg the larger the Veins appeard: and when wee had Dugg about 4 or 5 foot Perpendicular A Water issued out of Several Veins so fast that wee were forced to give over our Inquisitive Search: (unless wee had Proper Ingions or Instruments to Clear it) wch if wee had and gone on I on not but Wee had come at A Rich mine And in this Water I made my Observations as followeth: The first think I took Notice off was that A Negro man that had a very Great Swelling on His Legg who working in the mine was Accidentally Cured by standing in that Water: The Negro seeing that He put in A Clean and Bright peece of Silver into this Mineral Water and it Immediately Turned it off a Copporous Colour this put me Upon a farther Inquiery into the Nature and quality of the Water, and Here I was at a Stand and Puzzled how to make an estimate or General Judgment of ye Water: for Observing a Number of Small Streams coming through Several and Different Mineral Veins Judged that each Stream might partake of that quality the mineral was off, and as some veins were more sulphurous Other more Saline, there must be A Strange Mixture of Boath: but Upon Tryal with Galls would but barely Ting [word missing] Turn Black Notwithstanding and of the Veins being Obviously Different from the Rest and Upon Trying that by its self found it to Superabound in Salt: the manner I Tried it is as followeth I took about A pound of the Oar Clean Washed Dryed and put it in A Crucible and gave it A Strong Heat Stirring it until all its Brightness Disappeard, and when Cold I put it into a Glazzed Pot ouring on it A quart of Water Stirring it very Well and when Settled Decanted of the Clear Water into wch I put in about 8 grains of Galls wch Turned the Water as Black as Ink in 15 minutes time and by Evaporation and Crystallization Could gaine A pure fine Copporous Salt or Green Vitrial like al Martis: But I Could not doo see with any of the Rest of the Veins wch seemed all to abound with Sulphur and would not Tinge, or if they had any salt it was not Ferruginous but more of the Nature of those in the Hot Bath I mentioned before: and may be Judg accordingly [several words blurred] Mineral Water at St Faiths abounds more of Sulphur than of Salts and to Inquier into the Nature of the Sulphur it abounds with is A Difficult Matter, every Mineral or Metal (as is Said) to have its Peculiar Sulphur wch is Called by Some Its Masculine Seed and Nature First [fol. 69] First Agent in all Generation of Metals come Near to Elemental Fire Differing from Common Sulphur but this by Way of Digression and to Returne: I took A Small quantity of the Oar in General without Respect to any Particular Vein and Sublimed it of which I gained a large quantity of Red Flowers like those of Antimony with its undigested Mercury (and therefore by some is Called its Malignant Sulphur I also took about 12 ounces of a Particular Vein like that Oar the Spaniards Call Soroches wch by Fuseing it with A Strong Fluxing Fire in A Wind Furnace I Could Gett one ounce of A Pure Regulas as bright as any Starr of Antimony wch after 3 or 4 Meltings I gave A Negro Woman 8 grains of it, wch gave Her 9 or 10 Stools and one large Vomit bringing Up a large Stomack Worm and after she had took the same dose 3 or 4 times it altogether wrote downwards and took away A very Large Tumor She had Upon Her Thigh for some time before; So that it appears (in my Judgment by those Tryalls and some Others I made upon this St Faiths Water to be Impregnated with an Antimonial Sulphur A Vitriolick Salt, and if So I Leave you Sr: to Judge who is a better Judge than I off the Great Virtue and efficacy this Water must have in most Distempers incident to Human bodys This I Can assure and Assert that I saw an Hydropicall Person So Swelled that None of His Cloathes would come on Him and was Carried up to St Faiths in Blanketts to Drink this mineral Water who was in A Short time brought So long or small that His common Wareing Cloathes were much to bigg for Him and Remain in A good State of Health many years after it, I also know one Mr Smallwood Nephew to that Dr Smallwood you Mention in page 55 Introd: that was Cured of His Wound by a Poisned Arrow with Contrayerva the Virtues of Wch I Shall mention Hereafter This Smallwood was so swelled Upwards that He Could not Lye Down in His bed was Cured in six Weeks time by Drinking St Faiths Water Another Gentleman that Labourd under an Ascites was Cured by Drinking this Water at 30 Miles Distance only Now and then when the Water Did not Work by Stool (for it Never fails Working by Urine) an ounce or two of Sal Nitro Dissolved in the Mineral Water wch would give Many Watery Stools for 3 or 4 Days together Many Other Cured I see performed by this Wonderfull Medecinal Water to Tedious Here to Insert and May I Not Now ask the Question without offence since Jamaica so much abounds with Mines and Minerals why some of them if they were Nicely search[ed] or Lookt into might not be as Rich as any of their Neighbours: Mounsr. Galdy affirmed to me A little before I Left Jamaica that He had been up at Hyspaniola where the French had lately found a Rich Silver Mine; it is Certain the Mountains and easternmost Part of the Island of Jamaica Abounds with mines and Minerals and are frequently found more and more wch occasions as (some say) the Night Breezes to be so unholsom Raymundas saith that Vitriol is very Near A kind to Gold and hath Same Original and Principle its Certain there is A great Deal of Excellent Sulphur in Vitriol Paracelsus Accounts it A 3d part of Physick: than as to Antinomy wch is Another Quality The Island Abounds with Valentino Sayeth that its Sulphur is Equavilent to Potable Gold: and the Embry of Mettals and is found in Oruro Upon the [fol. 70] Upon the Main in Peruo in their Silver Oars and Why then Should wee not have Silver Oars in Jamaica Since wee have the same MIenralls with all the Symptoms they Carry and found in Silver Mines: (but this by the By) There is Near Round Hill in Camp Sevanna in the Parish of Vero a little Distant from Milk River (wch is very Brackish) 3 or 4 little Pitts or Holes of Water comeing from under the Round Hill wch Stands by its self in A Plain Sevanna Noo Other mountain being Near it in 8 or 9 Miles its Many Hundred feet High with a Blutt [?] Top: wch Water is a little Hotter than Blood Running ye Veins and in Cryed Up Mightly for Curing of Ulcers Achs and Pains, but Upon Strickt Inquiry I found it more Opinion then Matter of fact and by what Tryalls I made off it it Abounded with Common Marine Salt for out of 16 ounces of the Water I Could Gett six Drams of A Square grained Salt and noo appearance of Nitro as Some People would have it: as for its Warmth or Heat I Cannot Account for unless its Accasioned by a Rapid Motion it seems to have in the mountain by its Noise it makes within wch mountain is Running you mention Introd: p: 11 the Salt Water made into Salt by the Heat of the Sun wch was soo in your time, But Since the Earth quake in 1692 was Observed that there is no Such Salt to be found the Reason (as some say) that the Earthquake broak up the foundation of those Places and Destroyed the Rock of Salt its self whch was supposed the Seed to Lye in Which Turned the Rest of the Heating Waters with the Heat of the Sun into Salt. Wch is now wholly Lost those Place Remaining ever Since Over flowed and Now Turn to Salt: Much mony hath been Spent Since to make Salt but no Noo Purpose: and Now I Shall Leave these Hydrophanticall Observations to your serious Consideration and Candid Jud [fol. 71] Judgement and Opinion of these my mean undertakeing and as Received shall goo on; I wallways Remaining your most Humble Devoted Servant to Command at all times and in all Places Henry Barham Carter Lane November 21: D: 4: 1717

Henry Barham (1670?-1726) was a botanist. He lived in Jamaica and corresponded with Sloane on the plant and animal life of the island. Parts of Barham’s letters to Sloane appeared in the latter’s Natural History of Jamaica (T. F. Henderson, Barham, Henry (1670?1726), rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1374, accessed 13 June 2011]).



Patient Details

Letter 2214

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – November 21, 1717


Item info

Date: November 21, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 68-71


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 68] Worthy Sr The Kind Reception of my Last Incourages me to goo on with this, wch Relates to A Cold Water wch I mentioned in my last at St Faiths in ye Parrish of St Johns of Guanaboo about 14 Miles from St. Iago dela Vego: the Tryalls I made of it in About 18 years Past, since wch I have lost most of my Notes and Observations I made Uppon it but what Remains in my memory I shall freely Impart: Walking along in a Small River at St Faiths above said where the Banks of each side are very high and shaded with Pleasant Green Trees, I spied [?] Some Shineing Sticking to the sides of the Banks of ye River, their luster Obliged me to make a farther search into the Banks: wch I found (after A Thin Clay bed was taken off) as it were A perpend=icular Wall of Square Fleaky Stones as it Placed by Art with some Clefts or large partments [?] where was as if Thrust in; Beds of White and Blew Morter, wch Upon handling Stuck Close to the fingers like Stiff Clay smelling So Strong of Sulphur enough to strike one down when first taken out of ye Rocks; wch was full of fine Glitte=rring Particles and some Lumps as bigg as the largest Diamond and when washed Clean from ye Earth Appeared very bright and Glittering like Pollisht stool or that Oar (the Spaniard Calls) Espajado: Upon further search=es into ye Bank wee found a large shelf (as Miners Call it) or Veins of Oar Continguous one to the Other about a yard Broad about 11 or 12 in Number of Divers Colours but Cheifly Blewish or Black, like Spanish Oar Called Soroches or Tacana and Running or Dipping Down inwards under the River: the more and lower wee Dugg the larger the Veins appeard: and when wee had Dugg about 4 or 5 foot Perpendicular A Water issued out of Several Veins so fast that wee were forced to give over our Inquisitive Search: (unless wee had Proper Ingions or Instruments to Clear it) wch if wee had and gone on I on not but Wee had come at A Rich mine And in this Water I made my Observations as followeth: The first think I took Notice off was that A Negro man that had a very Great Swelling on His Legg who working in the mine was Accidentally Cured by standing in that Water: The Negro seeing that He put in A Clean and Bright peece of Silver into this Mineral Water and it Immediately Turned it off a Copporous Colour this put me Upon a farther Inquiery into the Nature and quality of the Water, and Here I was at a Stand and Puzzled how to make an estimate or General Judgment of ye Water: for Observing a Number of Small Streams coming through Several and Different Mineral Veins Judged that each Stream might partake of that quality the mineral was off, and as some veins were more sulphurous Other more Saline, there must be A Strange Mixture of Boath: but Upon Tryal with Galls would but barely Ting [word missing] Turn Black Notwithstanding and of the Veins being Obviously Different from the Rest and Upon Trying that by its self found it to Superabound in Salt: the manner I Tried it is as followeth I took about A pound of the Oar Clean Washed Dryed and put it in A Crucible and gave it A Strong Heat Stirring it until all its Brightness Disappeard, and when Cold I put it into a Glazzed Pot ouring on it A quart of Water Stirring it very Well and when Settled Decanted of the Clear Water into wch I put in about 8 grains of Galls wch Turned the Water as Black as Ink in 15 minutes time and by Evaporation and Crystallization Could gaine A pure fine Copporous Salt or Green Vitrial like al Martis: But I Could not doo see with any of the Rest of the Veins wch seemed all to abound with Sulphur and would not Tinge, or if they had any salt it was not Ferruginous but more of the Nature of those in the Hot Bath I mentioned before: and may be Judg accordingly [several words blurred] Mineral Water at St Faiths abounds more of Sulphur than of Salts and to Inquier into the Nature of the Sulphur it abounds with is A Difficult Matter, every Mineral or Metal (as is Said) to have its Peculiar Sulphur wch is Called by Some Its Masculine Seed and Nature First [fol. 69] First Agent in all Generation of Metals come Near to Elemental Fire Differing from Common Sulphur but this by Way of Digression and to Returne: I took A Small quantity of the Oar in General without Respect to any Particular Vein and Sublimed it of which I gained a large quantity of Red Flowers like those of Antimony with its undigested Mercury (and therefore by some is Called its Malignant Sulphur I also took about 12 ounces of a Particular Vein like that Oar the Spaniards Call Soroches wch by Fuseing it with A Strong Fluxing Fire in A Wind Furnace I Could Gett one ounce of A Pure Regulas as bright as any Starr of Antimony wch after 3 or 4 Meltings I gave A Negro Woman 8 grains of it, wch gave Her 9 or 10 Stools and one large Vomit bringing Up a large Stomack Worm and after she had took the same dose 3 or 4 times it altogether wrote downwards and took away A very Large Tumor She had Upon Her Thigh for some time before; So that it appears (in my Judgment by those Tryalls and some Others I made upon this St Faiths Water to be Impregnated with an Antimonial Sulphur A Vitriolick Salt, and if So I Leave you Sr: to Judge who is a better Judge than I off the Great Virtue and efficacy this Water must have in most Distempers incident to Human bodys This I Can assure and Assert that I saw an Hydropicall Person So Swelled that None of His Cloathes would come on Him and was Carried up to St Faiths in Blanketts to Drink this mineral Water who was in A Short time brought So long or small that His common Wareing Cloathes were much to bigg for Him and Remain in A good State of Health many years after it, I also know one Mr Smallwood Nephew to that Dr Smallwood you Mention in page 55 Introd: that was Cured of His Wound by a Poisned Arrow with Contrayerva the Virtues of Wch I Shall mention Hereafter This Smallwood was so swelled Upwards that He Could not Lye Down in His bed was Cured in six Weeks time by Drinking St Faiths Water Another Gentleman that Labourd under an Ascites was Cured by Drinking this Water at 30 Miles Distance only Now and then when the Water Did not Work by Stool (for it Never fails Working by Urine) an ounce or two of Sal Nitro Dissolved in the Mineral Water wch would give Many Watery Stools for 3 or 4 Days together Many Other Cured I see performed by this Wonderfull Medecinal Water to Tedious Here to Insert and May I Not Now ask the Question without offence since Jamaica so much abounds with Mines and Minerals why some of them if they were Nicely search[ed] or Lookt into might not be as Rich as any of their Neighbours: Mounsr. Galdy affirmed to me A little before I Left Jamaica that He had been up at Hyspaniola where the French had lately found a Rich Silver Mine; it is Certain the Mountains and easternmost Part of the Island of Jamaica Abounds with mines and Minerals and are frequently found more and more wch occasions as (some say) the Night Breezes to be so unholsom Raymundas saith that Vitriol is very Near A kind to Gold and hath Same Original and Principle its Certain there is A great Deal of Excellent Sulphur in Vitriol Paracelsus Accounts it A 3d part of Physick: than as to Antinomy wch is Another Quality The Island Abounds with Valentino Sayeth that its Sulphur is Equavilent to Potable Gold: and the Embry of Mettals and is found in Oruro Upon the [fol. 70] Upon the Main in Peruo in their Silver Oars and Why then Should wee not have Silver Oars in Jamaica Since wee have the same MIenralls with all the Symptoms they Carry and found in Silver Mines: (but this by the By) There is Near Round Hill in Camp Sevanna in the Parish of Vero a little Distant from Milk River (wch is very Brackish) 3 or 4 little Pitts or Holes of Water comeing from under the Round Hill wch Stands by its self in A Plain Sevanna Noo Other mountain being Near it in 8 or 9 Miles its Many Hundred feet High with a Blutt [?] Top: wch Water is a little Hotter than Blood Running ye Veins and in Cryed Up Mightly for Curing of Ulcers Achs and Pains, but Upon Strickt Inquiry I found it more Opinion then Matter of fact and by what Tryalls I made off it it Abounded with Common Marine Salt for out of 16 ounces of the Water I Could Gett six Drams of A Square grained Salt and noo appearance of Nitro as Some People would have it: as for its Warmth or Heat I Cannot Account for unless its Accasioned by a Rapid Motion it seems to have in the mountain by its Noise it makes within wch mountain is Running you mention Introd: p: 11 the Salt Water made into Salt by the Heat of the Sun wch was soo in your time, But Since the Earth quake in 1692 was Observed that there is no Such Salt to be found the Reason (as some say) that the Earthquake broak up the foundation of those Places and Destroyed the Rock of Salt its self whch was supposed the Seed to Lye in Which Turned the Rest of the Heating Waters with the Heat of the Sun into Salt. Wch is now wholly Lost those Place Remaining ever Since Over flowed and Now Turn to Salt: Much mony hath been Spent Since to make Salt but no Noo Purpose: and Now I Shall Leave these Hydrophanticall Observations to your serious Consideration and Candid Jud [fol. 71] Judgement and Opinion of these my mean undertakeing and as Received shall goo on; I wallways Remaining your most Humble Devoted Servant to Command at all times and in all Places Henry Barham Carter Lane November 21: D: 4: 1717

Henry Barham (1670?-1726) was a botanist. He lived in Jamaica and corresponded with Sloane on the plant and animal life of the island. Parts of Barham’s letters to Sloane appeared in the latter’s Natural History of Jamaica (T. F. Henderson, Barham, Henry (1670?1726), rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1374, accessed 13 June 2011]).



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