Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Margaret Ray to Hans Sloane – November 19, 1706
Item info
Date: November 19, 1706
Author: Margaret Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 255-256
Original Page
Transcription
[fol. 355] Black Notley Nov ye 19 1706 Sr Your very kind letter I recd last week for which and all other of your favours and kindness I hereby return you my most hearty thanks and especially for the great pains and care you have taken upon the account of my dear Husband and self: I will as you desire return Sr Thomas Willoughby thanks for his kindness and by the first opportunity order where the money he sent me shall be paid and as to his Book and papers about Insects they are herewith sent too you: and hope they will come safe, As too the Monument for my Husband I must leave wholy to the directions of my friends whose kindness and care to preserve his Memory I gratefully acknowledge, I haveing formerly acquainted you with the circumstances of my Family need not repeat it: only let you know it cannot but be straight with us when Mr Ray did not leave £40 per a year among us all: cut of which Taxes Repairs and Quitrents make a great hole. As to my husbands papers I have put all of them except some letters into Mr Dales hands of which I presume he hath given you an account and will publish what he finds fitt. The History of Insects you know was left unfinished and is at your direction: and as to my books I will send them up as soon as weather will permit which I fear will not be now untill summer; not doubting in the least of your assistance in their disposeall Sr I have not more to add but the repeating of my thanks and the presenting the services of myself and daughters subscribe my self Sr Your most obliged Humble Servant Margaret Ray
Margaret Ray (nee Oakley) was the wife of John Ray, the naturalist and theologian (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 21 May 2011]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Ray to Hans Sloane – November 17, 1697
Item info
Date: November 17, 1697
Author: John Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4036
Folio: ff. 371-372
Original Page
Transcription
Ray informs Sloane that he received the latter’s package yesterday. This included ‘Compound flower’. Ray has enclosed a letter to Sherard for Sloane to pass on, though he does not have Sherard’s address. Ray explains that the letter to Sherard is one of thanks for his help and collaboration.
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]).
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
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Patient info
Name: Lady Elizabeth Monck (nee Cavendish), Duchess of Abemarle
Gender:
Age:
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Description
[Lady Elizabeth Monck, nee Cavendish, later married Ralph Montagu, Duke of Montagu. Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vol. 1, p. 90.]
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Diagnosis
Fever and lack of appetite as well as a 'dejection of spirit' that Pearce describes as melancholy.
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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.
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More information
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Medical problem reference
Stomach, Grief, Melancholy, Emotions, Fevers
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Ray to Hans Sloane – June 23, 1696
Item info
Date: June 23, 1696
Author: John Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4036
Folio: ff. 238-239
Original Page
Transcription
Ray thanks Sloane for the book. He praises Sloane’s ‘industry & patience in reading & comparing such a multitude of Relations & Accounts of voyages’. Ray is especially impressed with Sloane’s simple method of classification. He is going to undertake more research and inform Sloane of anything he finds that may be of use.
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]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
David Gregory to Hans Sloane – June 8, 1704
Item info
Date: June 8, 1704
Author: David Gregory
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4039
Folio: ff. 307-308
Original Page
Transcription
[fol. 308] Sir I send you an account of V. Viviani’s book as the Royal Society commanded me. I must beg of you to recommend the printing it exactly, for otherwise it will be unintelligible. If when it is corrected you will send down the last [?] to me, that will help secure it. I am Sir Your most humble and most obedient servant DGregory. Oxon. 8 June. 1704.
Gregory was a mathematician and astronomer who published the first astronomy textbook to integrate Newton’s gravitational theory (Anita Guerrini, Gregory, David (16591708), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11456, accessed 24 June 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Richard Waller to Hans Sloane – April 11, 1699
Item info
Date: April 11, 1699
Author: Richard Waller
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4037
Folio: ff. 249-250
Original Page
Transcription
Waller read over Sloane’s suggestions for the Parisian Academie’s rules and regulations. Waller worries that the Royal Society, comprised wholly of volunteers, ‘will be unwilling to be too much confined and obliged’ to the particulars of Sloane’s recommendations. He discusses the potential effects of the proposed regulations on the publishing of scientific treatises.
Richard Waller was a natural philosopher and translator who worked as the Royal Society’s secretary. He also served on its council and edited the Philosophical Transactions (Lotte Mulligan, Waller, Richard (c.16601715), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48707, accessed 19 June 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Ray to Hans Sloane – March 29, 1705*
Item info
Date: March 29, 1705*
Author: John Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4039
Folio: ff. 280-281
Original Page
Transcription
*Note that Ray has incorrectly marked the date on this letter; by March 29, 1705, Ray had been dead for some time. The letter is actually from 1704.
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
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Patient info
Name: N/A John Ray
Gender:
Age:76 years old.
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Description
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Diagnosis
Leg ulcers, which Sir Thomas Millington has diagnosed as incurable via outward applications; only internal medicine will suffice. His legs and feet are also swelling and pitting.
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Treatment
Previous Treatment: Millington gave Ray the recipe for a diet drink: watercress, brooklime, dock-roots, a few alder leaves, all boiled in wort instead of hops, all worked up in a vessel.
Ongoing Treatment:
Response: Ray tried the drink once, and 'received some benefit', but did not keep up with the treatment as winter was coming and it did not work as suddenly as he expected.
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More information
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Medical problem reference
Pitting, Injuries (includes wounds, sores, bruises), Skin ailments, Leg Sores, Swelling
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Hudson to Hans Sloane – March 13, 1703/04
Item info
Date: March 13, 1703/04
Author: John Hudson
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4039
Folio: f. 258
Original Page
Transcription
Hudson has reviewed Sloane’s catalogue and compared it to the library’s, checking off the books he desires. Any books Sloane provides will be inserted into the catalogue.
John Hudson (1662-1719) was elected librarian of the Bodleian Library in 1701. He corresponded with numerous scholars and librarians, both in England and abroad (Theodor Harmsen, Hudson, John (16621719), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14034, accessed 27 June 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Ray to Hans Sloane – March 17, 1703/04
Item info
Date: March 17, 1703/04
Author: John Ray
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4039
Folio: f. 274
Original Page
Transcription
Ray apologizes for keeping Sloane’s rare plants for so long. He will describe them to make up for it. He had wanted to compare Sloane’s Chinese plants with Petiver’s, but Petiver has yet to send his.
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
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Patient info
Name: N/A John Ray
Gender:
Age:76 years old.
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Description
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Diagnosis
One of his small leg ulcers 'all of a sudden bubbled up like a fountain', to a degree that had to be seen to believed, and ran for 5 days; weakness that makes it so he cannot stand alone or rise from his chair; a fever that turned into a sweat; the skin of one of his insteps 'by degrees turned black' and now is rotted and corrupted with copious gleet.
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Treatment
Previous Treatment:
Ongoing Treatment:
Response:
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More information
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Medical problem reference
Gleet, Fevers, Leg Sores, Skin ailments, Pain, Injuries (includes wounds, sores, bruises), Inflammations
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Richard Richardson to Hans Sloane – June 16, 1702
Item info
Date: June 16, 1702
Author: Richard Richardson
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4038
Folio: ff. 353-354
Original Page
Transcription
MS 4038 Fol. 353
North Bierley June 16 702
Worthy Sir
I am glad to heare by your last that the designes were soe diverting to your Society, I hope longe agoe you got the coale plants & safe there are some 2 or 3 small ones which if you have time to examine them nicely you wil find the representations of seed upon them which is rare to be met with specimens of our same northern plants I am mounting for you I said with I knowe of any thing else that My country affords which I might find along with them that nigh & pound weight of stones voyded by urine in her then I years time by a person in Hallifax parish I have some of them by me that weigh nigh xxgr a piece & mr preistley in whose hands they now are told me there were much larger which he had disposed of, they are of very irregulare formes & the poor man voided of them dayly not with out very violent paine I wil save some of them for you to be sent with the plants this being soe unnaturall a case I could not omit it for a person of your curiosity & of any thing in naurall history occurr worthy of your observation I shall not be wanting in my comunications: & if any duplicats occurr to you in the regutation of your curiouse collection when you have time to regulate them any (ripped) of naturell History obliged (?) to a (?) us (ripped) ardson
Fol. 353 v
Mr Bonivest drink with me this day, we drinke your health & he gives you his humble service
Richardson is glad that the Royal Society liked the designs; he expresses his desire to hear if the samples, ‘Coale plants’, he had sent arrived safely and discusses rare northern plants. He writes that he has saved some irregular plants from Mr Priestly, which he will pass on to Sloane.
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]).