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Letter 2224

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – December 11, 1717


Item info

Date: December 11, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 77-79



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 77] Worthy Sr In my last I gave you some [word missing] of the Oars of Jamaica wch that Island Superabounds with and to give a Perticular account of every sort would make a large Treatise of its self at 16 mile Walk in one Palmers Grouns is found Upon the Earth Loose Stones (that seems to Rowl down from A mountain Near the Place) Iron Stones so Rich of that Mettall as seem to be all Iron and very Hard to Brake a Sunder, the Hammer makes an Impression as if Malabell before it would [text blurred] in peeces; and when Parted a Sunder the Inside Lookt as Red as Lapis Hematites I saw A Sharp Corroded Stone Seem to be Broke off from a large Stone of the Same Colour above Mentioned and brought from the Same Place that would Attrack Iron or Steel as Strong as any Magnett in Proportion to its Bigness: it is Certain that there is many Mines in Jamaica as Rich: if there were a Sett of Rich and Publick Spirited Men would Sett Heartily about the Work and with good Resolution to see the Depth or Bottom of them (and I Could Direct them where to begin) But to proceed to the Intended Matter you mention Introduction page 17 of Anti Neasts brought from the Woods in wch are found Clay Balls of Strange Different Shapes as if made by the Art of Man: and in those Wood Wnti Neasts the Amphosbona found I have seen them about 5 or 6 Inches with Perfect Heads at each End Running Swiftly either Direct or Retrogate or to the Right and Left with Equal Swiftness without Turning about: and in Digging Up of Old foundations I have seen those sort of A Worm like Shape Described and figured in Pisol wch when the Negros saw them, would flye from them [as] if Death its self was there saying they have them in their Country and are Present Death to any that are bitt or stung by them. Introd: page: 54- you Mention the Negroes Remedy: of Clay and Water Plaistering over their bodys with it its True some Negroes may use Barly or no other thing than Clay and Water: and I Thought soo for some years that they had used no Other thing: but upon a more Strickt Inquiery I found it was a yellowish Root wch they Call Altoo the Same Root you Mention in your Catalogus Plantarum page 214 viz Radix Firuticosa: glycyrrhia Similis cortica fuses[.] Besides Cleaning their Teeth with this Root they take it and Grind it very fine between two stones with Water and make an Islutamentum with wch they illuse or Plaister them selves with it and When Dry looks like A yellow Earth: Sometimes they only Illutate the Head and Face, if thats effected Sometimes their Stomach if their Heart is effected for they attribute all inward ails or illness to the Heart Saying their Heart is Noo Boon not Knowing the situation of the Stomach from that of the Heart: if their Limbs and Solid parts are effected they Illutate them selves all over saying their Skin Hurts them: The Affricans hath such Confidence and Opinion of this Root outwardly Applied or Inwardly given Decocted they wholly Dispair of any Relief believing it to be the most Soveraigne Remedy that they know Amongst all the Plants that comes Within their Knowledge. This Root was Much used by an Honrbl: Coll: in Ligano and Cryed Up to be one of the Greatest Remedies in ye World in Colicks or Belly aches: He Telling me the many Experiments He had made by A Simple Decoction of this Root: I had a fair Opportunity to Try Wither this Root was of such efficacy and Matter of Fact in a following Case: I Sent A Servant of Mine A Carpenter Up in to the Mountains to fall and Square Some Timber: who [fol. 78] who was takeing Such Care of Him Self when [word blurred] as He Should Soon found the effect of His Neglect Getting A Great Cold and was seized with most violent Pains in His Viscera and in 24 Hours was Thrown into Strong Convulsions: A messenger bringing this Information: I Rid Up to Him: it being A Place of Great Distance from a Town and where Compound me decides was not to be had: I Thought of the Poll: Root wch Grows in Great Plenty within, 3 or 4 Miles of this Place wch I Sent for and Decocted it in Spring Water and Gave this Poor Man (who had had Several Strong Convulsions and in Violent Pains) of this Decoction Warm about half a pint at A time Repeating it very often. the effect it had it first eased Him of His Pains in A Short time after it wrot [?] Gentrly Downwards and in 3 or 4 Days He thought Him Self as Well as ever He was and is easy all His Convulsive Tremors and Symptoms Left Him: His Appetite Returned and was Throughy Recoverd and So Continued without being Nerviated Paralyzed or Conculsed afterwards. In the Same Page it is Certain as you mention the Negroes make use of Fingrigo Roots for Claps and Some of them ad ye Roots of Prickly yellow Wood and Lime Tree Roots: but the most knowing or skillfull Negroes such as they Call (Oba men) or their Country Doctors use yellow Nickers Beaten to A Powder wch they Say Purges and Bindes them after it: like to our Myrabolins. But a Certain Negro Discovered to a Patient of Myne (that had Labourd under an Old Gleet wch Could not be stopt (after due Purging) by no Restringent or Natural Balsams whatsoever) A Plant wch I Shall Mention Hereafter that only by Decocting it and Drinking about half A pint of itt for 3 or 4 Mornings made Him perfectly Well and Sound of His Gleet as He affirmed to me with Reflections that Negroes Could doo more with their Herbs than Wee Practitioners with all our Art or Skill and I had Reason to Believe Him in this Particular Case: because I gave it my Self afterwards with good Success in the Like Case: Introd: page 55 you say one of the Greatest Remedies the Planters living here have to Prevent Diseases or ill effects of What they Call ill Fumes or Vapours is their Contrayerva wch you Call (and not Without Reason) A ristolochia Scandons Odo [?] ratissima: floris labello purpureo Semino cordato et Odoratissima and is Hernandez Tomahuetlopath. [?] and one of His Ingredients in His Grand Elixir or Great Antidoteas I have been Informed by the Spaaniards: and Besides that Remarkable [ink blot] (you mention Performed by an Indian Upon Dr Smallwood when Wounded by a Poison Arrow it hath been found Since by Daily Experiments to be one of the Greatest Antidotes and Antifribriticis inward by Given that is yet or every was Discovered and Besides the Work Hernandez ascribes to it Mentioned in your Natural History of Jamaica page 162 and that of H:M: it Drives out the Small Pox and Measles and is Prevalent in Calentures and Hectick Fevers This is to its Vertues in Generall: in Particular I know one Mr Henry Hill: or a Lusty Fatt Jolly Man When in Health He happened to be seized with the Belly ach wch what with its Violence and Missing of the Expected Help by Remedies He was Reduced to A miserable State and Condition Given over by all that Set Him being emaciated Lost the use of His Limbs Lingring and Walking about with Help like a Disconsolate and Dispairing Man: at Last He was advised to make use of Contrayerva Infused or Decocted in Spring Water and Drink About half A Pint every Morning for some Week wch Recoverd Him as He Told mee Himself: I being one Day in His Company And to all Appearance Seem to be as fatt and as Jolly as ever I Saw him: and Knowing in what Condition I had Seen Him before askt Him how and by what means He was soo Straingly Recoverd: He Told me it was Purely own to the Great Vertues in Contrayerva [fol. 79] Contrayerva for after He had Tried all things as He Called it and took every bodys advice to Noo effect He took to Drinking of an Infusion of Contrayerva every morning for some time: He said it first Brought a Way Gently for some days very Black Stools: afterwards it wrought strongly by Urine and Sweat Creating a very Great Appetite and Restored Him to A Miracle: it is unspeakable the Praise and Character He Gave the Plant it is Now become in Great use in Jamaica for Loss of Appetites Scraped and infused in Wine or A Tea Made off it; if the Vertues of it was as Well Known in Europe as it is in America There would not be A Drugg in Shopes would be of more Demand than this: I saw A Tymponite Girl Cured with the Contrayerva infused or steept in Spring Water with Rusty Iron put with it: I know one Mr Legott that was subject to A Void Much Blood after wch A Great Swelling and Hardness of His Belly followed that I have been Surprised to See Him He Tould me He Valued not His Swelling for I can Take that Away as I Please with Contrayerva the effect I saw and was Matter of Fact it is Experienced to Kill Worms. I hope you excuse me for being so long Upon this Subject: and am Sr. your most Humble and Obliged Servant Henry Barham London December 11th 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

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A Henry Hiller
    Gender:
    Age:
  • Description

    Man had a cold and suffered from stomach pains that led to 'strong Convulsions'.

  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    He was given 'Contrayerva' with spring water.


    Ongoing Treatment:
    Response:

    '3 or 4 Days' after taking the initial dose the man was in good health, suffered no further convulsions, and a had full proper appetite.

  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Pain, Stomach, Sleeplessness, Stomach

Letter 2231

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – December 11, 1717


Item info

Date: December 11, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 77-79



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 77] Worthy Sr In my last I gave you some [word missing] of the Oars of Jamaica wch that Island Superabounds with and to give a Perticular account of every sort would make a large Treatise of its self at 16 mile Walk in one Palmers Grouns is found Upon the Earth Loose Stones (that seems to Rowl down from A mountain Near the Place) Iron Stones so Rich of that Mettall as seem to be all Iron and very Hard to Brake a Sunder, the Hammer makes an Impression as if Malabell before it would [text blurred] in peeces; and when Parted a Sunder the Inside Lookt as Red as Lapis Hematites I saw A Sharp Corroded Stone Seem to be Broke off from a large Stone of the Same Colour above Mentioned and brought from the Same Place that would Attrack Iron or Steel as Strong as any Magnett in Proportion to its Bigness: it is Certain that there is many Mines in Jamaica as Rich: if there were a Sett of Rich and Publick Spirited Men would Sett Heartily about the Work and with good Resolution to see the Depth or Bottom of them (and I Could Direct them where to begin) But to proceed to the Intended Matter you mention Introduction page 17 of Anti Neasts brought from the Woods in wch are found Clay Balls of Strange Different Shapes as if made by the Art of Man: and in those Wood Wnti Neasts the Amphosbona found I have seen them about 5 or 6 Inches with Perfect Heads at each End Running Swiftly either Direct or Retrogate or to the Right and Left with Equal Swiftness without Turning about: and in Digging Up of Old foundations I have seen those sort of A Worm like Shape Described and figured in Pisol wch when the Negros saw them, would flye from them [as] if Death its self was there saying they have them in their Country and are Present Death to any that are bitt or stung by them. Introd: page: 54- you Mention the Negroes Remedy: of Clay and Water Plaistering over their bodys with it its True some Negroes may use Barly or no other thing than Clay and Water: and I Thought soo for some years that they had used no Other thing: but upon a more Strickt Inquiery I found it was a yellowish Root wch they Call Altoo the Same Root you Mention in your Catalogus Plantarum page 214 viz Radix Firuticosa: glycyrrhia Similis cortica fuses[.] Besides Cleaning their Teeth with this Root they take it and Grind it very fine between two stones with Water and make an Islutamentum with wch they illuse or Plaister them selves with it and When Dry looks like A yellow Earth: Sometimes they only Illutate the Head and Face, if thats effected Sometimes their Stomach if their Heart is effected for they attribute all inward ails or illness to the Heart Saying their Heart is Noo Boon not Knowing the situation of the Stomach from that of the Heart: if their Limbs and Solid parts are effected they Illutate them selves all over saying their Skin Hurts them: The Affricans hath such Confidence and Opinion of this Root outwardly Applied or Inwardly given Decocted they wholly Dispair of any Relief believing it to be the most Soveraigne Remedy that they know Amongst all the Plants that comes Within their Knowledge. This Root was Much used by an Honrbl: Coll: in Ligano and Cryed Up to be one of the Greatest Remedies in ye World in Colicks or Belly aches: He Telling me the many Experiments He had made by A Simple Decoction of this Root: I had a fair Opportunity to Try Wither this Root was of such efficacy and Matter of Fact in a following Case: I Sent A Servant of Mine A Carpenter Up in to the Mountains to fall and Square Some Timber: who [fol. 78] who was takeing Such Care of Him Self when [word blurred] as He Should Soon found the effect of His Neglect Getting A Great Cold and was seized with most violent Pains in His Viscera and in 24 Hours was Thrown into Strong Convulsions: A messenger bringing this Information: I Rid Up to Him: it being A Place of Great Distance from a Town and where Compound me decides was not to be had: I Thought of the Poll: Root wch Grows in Great Plenty within, 3 or 4 Miles of this Place wch I Sent for and Decocted it in Spring Water and Gave this Poor Man (who had had Several Strong Convulsions and in Violent Pains) of this Decoction Warm about half a pint at A time Repeating it very often. the effect it had it first eased Him of His Pains in A Short time after it wrot [?] Gentrly Downwards and in 3 or 4 Days He thought Him Self as Well as ever He was and is easy all His Convulsive Tremors and Symptoms Left Him: His Appetite Returned and was Throughy Recoverd and So Continued without being Nerviated Paralyzed or Conculsed afterwards. In the Same Page it is Certain as you mention the Negroes make use of Fingrigo Roots for Claps and Some of them ad ye Roots of Prickly yellow Wood and Lime Tree Roots: but the most knowing or skillfull Negroes such as they Call (Oba men) or their Country Doctors use yellow Nickers Beaten to A Powder wch they Say Purges and Bindes them after it: like to our Myrabolins. But a Certain Negro Discovered to a Patient of Myne (that had Labourd under an Old Gleet wch Could not be stopt (after due Purging) by no Restringent or Natural Balsams whatsoever) A Plant wch I Shall Mention Hereafter that only by Decocting it and Drinking about half A pint of itt for 3 or 4 Mornings made Him perfectly Well and Sound of His Gleet as He affirmed to me with Reflections that Negroes Could doo more with their Herbs than Wee Practitioners with all our Art or Skill and I had Reason to Believe Him in this Particular Case: because I gave it my Self afterwards with good Success in the Like Case: Introd: page 55 you say one of the Greatest Remedies the Planters living here have to Prevent Diseases or ill effects of What they Call ill Fumes or Vapours is their Contrayerva wch you Call (and not Without Reason) A ristolochia Scandons Odo [?] ratissima: floris labello purpureo Semino cordato et Odoratissima and is Hernandez Tomahuetlopath. [?] and one of His Ingredients in His Grand Elixir or Great Antidoteas I have been Informed by the Spaaniards: and Besides that Remarkable [ink blot] (you mention Performed by an Indian Upon Dr Smallwood when Wounded by a Poison Arrow it hath been found Since by Daily Experiments to be one of the Greatest Antidotes and Antifribriticis inward by Given that is yet or every was Discovered and Besides the Work Hernandez ascribes to it Mentioned in your Natural History of Jamaica page 162 and that of H:M: it Drives out the Small Pox and Measles and is Prevalent in Calentures and Hectick Fevers This is to its Vertues in Generall: in Particular I know one Mr Henry Hill: or a Lusty Fatt Jolly Man When in Health He happened to be seized with the Belly ach wch what with its Violence and Missing of the Expected Help by Remedies He was Reduced to A miserable State and Condition Given over by all that Set Him being emaciated Lost the use of His Limbs Lingring and Walking about with Help like a Disconsolate and Dispairing Man: at Last He was advised to make use of Contrayerva Infused or Decocted in Spring Water and Drink About half A Pint every Morning for some Week wch Recoverd Him as He Told mee Himself: I being one Day in His Company And to all Appearance Seem to be as fatt and as Jolly as ever I Saw him: and Knowing in what Condition I had Seen Him before askt Him how and by what means He was soo Straingly Recoverd: He Told me it was Purely own to the Great Vertues in Contrayerva [fol. 79] Contrayerva for after He had Tried all things as He Called it and took every bodys advice to Noo effect He took to Drinking of an Infusion of Contrayerva every morning for some time: He said it first Brought a Way Gently for some days very Black Stools: afterwards it wrought strongly by Urine and Sweat Creating a very Great Appetite and Restored Him to A Miracle: it is unspeakable the Praise and Character He Gave the Plant it is Now become in Great use in Jamaica for Loss of Appetites Scraped and infused in Wine or A Tea Made off it; if the Vertues of it was as Well Known in Europe as it is in America There would not be A Drugg in Shopes would be of more Demand than this: I saw A Tymponite Girl Cured with the Contrayerva infused or steept in Spring Water with Rusty Iron put with it: I know one Mr Legott that was subject to A Void Much Blood after wch A Great Swelling and Hardness of His Belly followed that I have been Surprised to See Him He Tould me He Valued not His Swelling for I can Take that Away as I Please with Contrayerva the effect I saw and was Matter of Fact it is Experienced to Kill Worms. I hope you excuse me for being so long Upon this Subject: and am Sr. your most Humble and Obliged Servant Henry Barham London December 11th 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 2227

Henry Barham Sr. to Hans Sloane – December 11, 1717


Item info

Date: December 11, 1717
Author: Henry Barham Sr.
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4045
Folio: ff. 77-79



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 77] Worthy Sr In my last I gave you some [word missing] of the Oars of Jamaica wch that Island Superabounds with and to give a Perticular account of every sort would make a large Treatise of its self at 16 mile Walk in one Palmers Grouns is found Upon the Earth Loose Stones (that seems to Rowl down from A mountain Near the Place) Iron Stones so Rich of that Mettall as seem to be all Iron and very Hard to Brake a Sunder, the Hammer makes an Impression as if Malabell before it would [text blurred] in peeces; and when Parted a Sunder the Inside Lookt as Red as Lapis Hematites I saw A Sharp Corroded Stone Seem to be Broke off from a large Stone of the Same Colour above Mentioned and brought from the Same Place that would Attrack Iron or Steel as Strong as any Magnett in Proportion to its Bigness: it is Certain that there is many Mines in Jamaica as Rich: if there were a Sett of Rich and Publick Spirited Men would Sett Heartily about the Work and with good Resolution to see the Depth or Bottom of them (and I Could Direct them where to begin) But to proceed to the Intended Matter you mention Introduction page 17 of Anti Neasts brought from the Woods in wch are found Clay Balls of Strange Different Shapes as if made by the Art of Man: and in those Wood Wnti Neasts the Amphosbona found I have seen them about 5 or 6 Inches with Perfect Heads at each End Running Swiftly either Direct or Retrogate or to the Right and Left with Equal Swiftness without Turning about: and in Digging Up of Old foundations I have seen those sort of A Worm like Shape Described and figured in Pisol wch when the Negros saw them, would flye from them [as] if Death its self was there saying they have them in their Country and are Present Death to any that are bitt or stung by them. Introd: page: 54- you Mention the Negroes Remedy: of Clay and Water Plaistering over their bodys with it its True some Negroes may use Barly or no other thing than Clay and Water: and I Thought soo for some years that they had used no Other thing: but upon a more Strickt Inquiery I found it was a yellowish Root wch they Call Altoo the Same Root you Mention in your Catalogus Plantarum page 214 viz Radix Firuticosa: glycyrrhia Similis cortica fuses[.] Besides Cleaning their Teeth with this Root they take it and Grind it very fine between two stones with Water and make an Islutamentum with wch they illuse or Plaister them selves with it and When Dry looks like A yellow Earth: Sometimes they only Illutate the Head and Face, if thats effected Sometimes their Stomach if their Heart is effected for they attribute all inward ails or illness to the Heart Saying their Heart is Noo Boon not Knowing the situation of the Stomach from that of the Heart: if their Limbs and Solid parts are effected they Illutate them selves all over saying their Skin Hurts them: The Affricans hath such Confidence and Opinion of this Root outwardly Applied or Inwardly given Decocted they wholly Dispair of any Relief believing it to be the most Soveraigne Remedy that they know Amongst all the Plants that comes Within their Knowledge. This Root was Much used by an Honrbl: Coll: in Ligano and Cryed Up to be one of the Greatest Remedies in ye World in Colicks or Belly aches: He Telling me the many Experiments He had made by A Simple Decoction of this Root: I had a fair Opportunity to Try Wither this Root was of such efficacy and Matter of Fact in a following Case: I Sent A Servant of Mine A Carpenter Up in to the Mountains to fall and Square Some Timber: who [fol. 78] who was takeing Such Care of Him Self when [word blurred] as He Should Soon found the effect of His Neglect Getting A Great Cold and was seized with most violent Pains in His Viscera and in 24 Hours was Thrown into Strong Convulsions: A messenger bringing this Information: I Rid Up to Him: it being A Place of Great Distance from a Town and where Compound me decides was not to be had: I Thought of the Poll: Root wch Grows in Great Plenty within, 3 or 4 Miles of this Place wch I Sent for and Decocted it in Spring Water and Gave this Poor Man (who had had Several Strong Convulsions and in Violent Pains) of this Decoction Warm about half a pint at A time Repeating it very often. the effect it had it first eased Him of His Pains in A Short time after it wrot [?] Gentrly Downwards and in 3 or 4 Days He thought Him Self as Well as ever He was and is easy all His Convulsive Tremors and Symptoms Left Him: His Appetite Returned and was Throughy Recoverd and So Continued without being Nerviated Paralyzed or Conculsed afterwards. In the Same Page it is Certain as you mention the Negroes make use of Fingrigo Roots for Claps and Some of them ad ye Roots of Prickly yellow Wood and Lime Tree Roots: but the most knowing or skillfull Negroes such as they Call (Oba men) or their Country Doctors use yellow Nickers Beaten to A Powder wch they Say Purges and Bindes them after it: like to our Myrabolins. But a Certain Negro Discovered to a Patient of Myne (that had Labourd under an Old Gleet wch Could not be stopt (after due Purging) by no Restringent or Natural Balsams whatsoever) A Plant wch I Shall Mention Hereafter that only by Decocting it and Drinking about half A pint of itt for 3 or 4 Mornings made Him perfectly Well and Sound of His Gleet as He affirmed to me with Reflections that Negroes Could doo more with their Herbs than Wee Practitioners with all our Art or Skill and I had Reason to Believe Him in this Particular Case: because I gave it my Self afterwards with good Success in the Like Case: Introd: page 55 you say one of the Greatest Remedies the Planters living here have to Prevent Diseases or ill effects of What they Call ill Fumes or Vapours is their Contrayerva wch you Call (and not Without Reason) A ristolochia Scandons Odo [?] ratissima: floris labello purpureo Semino cordato et Odoratissima and is Hernandez Tomahuetlopath. [?] and one of His Ingredients in His Grand Elixir or Great Antidoteas I have been Informed by the Spaaniards: and Besides that Remarkable [ink blot] (you mention Performed by an Indian Upon Dr Smallwood when Wounded by a Poison Arrow it hath been found Since by Daily Experiments to be one of the Greatest Antidotes and Antifribriticis inward by Given that is yet or every was Discovered and Besides the Work Hernandez ascribes to it Mentioned in your Natural History of Jamaica page 162 and that of H:M: it Drives out the Small Pox and Measles and is Prevalent in Calentures and Hectick Fevers This is to its Vertues in Generall: in Particular I know one Mr Henry Hill: or a Lusty Fatt Jolly Man When in Health He happened to be seized with the Belly ach wch what with its Violence and Missing of the Expected Help by Remedies He was Reduced to A miserable State and Condition Given over by all that Set Him being emaciated Lost the use of His Limbs Lingring and Walking about with Help like a Disconsolate and Dispairing Man: at Last He was advised to make use of Contrayerva Infused or Decocted in Spring Water and Drink About half A Pint every Morning for some Week wch Recoverd Him as He Told mee Himself: I being one Day in His Company And to all Appearance Seem to be as fatt and as Jolly as ever I Saw him: and Knowing in what Condition I had Seen Him before askt Him how and by what means He was soo Straingly Recoverd: He Told me it was Purely own to the Great Vertues in Contrayerva [fol. 79] Contrayerva for after He had Tried all things as He Called it and took every bodys advice to Noo effect He took to Drinking of an Infusion of Contrayerva every morning for some time: He said it first Brought a Way Gently for some days very Black Stools: afterwards it wrought strongly by Urine and Sweat Creating a very Great Appetite and Restored Him to A Miracle: it is unspeakable the Praise and Character He Gave the Plant it is Now become in Great use in Jamaica for Loss of Appetites Scraped and infused in Wine or A Tea Made off it; if the Vertues of it was as Well Known in Europe as it is in America There would not be A Drugg in Shopes would be of more Demand than this: I saw A Tymponite Girl Cured with the Contrayerva infused or steept in Spring Water with Rusty Iron put with it: I know one Mr Legott that was subject to A Void Much Blood after wch A Great Swelling and Hardness of His Belly followed that I have been Surprised to See Him He Tould me He Valued not His Swelling for I can Take that Away as I Please with Contrayerva the effect I saw and was Matter of Fact it is Experienced to Kill Worms. I hope you excuse me for being so long Upon this Subject: and am Sr. your most Humble and Obliged Servant Henry Barham London December 11th 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

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A Unnamed
    Gender:
    Age:
  • Description

    Man had a cold and suffered from stomach pains that led to 'strong Convulsions'.

  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    He was given 'Contrayerva' with spring water.


    Ongoing Treatment:
    Response:

    '3 or 4 Days' after taking the initial dose the man was in good health, suffered no further convulsions, and a had full proper appetite.

  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Pain, Stomach, Sleeplessness, Stomach

Of a leveret brought up by a cat

Tales of cross-species ‘friendships’ always warm the cockles of our modern hearts. It is difficult not to be charmed by accounts of Koko the Gorilla’s attachment to kittens and her grief when one died, or tales of a tiger suckling piglets . Early modern people were also fascinated by these odd pairings. In 1654, for example, John Evelyn reported that he “saw a tame lion play familiarly with a lamb” at a London fair. (Evelyn also stuck his hand in the lion’s mouth to touch its tongue—not sure I’d have taken my chances, no matter how tame the lion!)

In 1743, Montague Bacon, the Rector of Newbold Verdun in Leicestershire, offered up another strange pairing for the interest of Sir Hans Sloane (BL Sloane MS 4066, f. 127). “Pray tell Sr. Hans”, he wrote to Captain Tublay, “that my brother has got a Leveret, that has been suckled & bred up by a cat”. Not quite lion and lamb status, but still


The cat & the Leveret are as fond of one another, as can be. The Cat take’s it to be of her own kind, & sometimes bring’s live mice to it to teach it it’s own hare: and when she see’s, that the Lever[e]t has no relish of the employment, she boxe’s her ears for not learning her bus’ness, as she should do.

A hare. Coloured wood engraving. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

A hare. Coloured wood engraving.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Both animal odd couples were clearly curiosities, but viewers would have had very different interpretations. During the Interregnum (1649-1660), the lion and lamb pairing would have had religious and political resonance. Religiously, it evoked Isaiah 11:6 and the dual nature of Christ (lion as conquest and lamb as sacrifice): “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”

"Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch" by Edward Hicks - http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=18738.Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

“Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch” by Edward Hicks – http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=18738.Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Politically, the lion and lamb pairing also showed up in Royalist works celebrating the return of the king, such as the popular ballad “The King Enjoys His Own Again”:

When all these shall come to pass,
then farewell Musket, Pipe and Drum,
The Lamb shall with the Lyon feed,
which were a happy time indeed:
O let us all pray, we may see the day,
that Peace may govern in his Name:
For then I can tell all things will be well
When the King comes Home in Peace again

The leveret and cat pairing was a much cozier domestic matter. It took place within the home of Bacon’s brother and the cat acted as mother to the leveret, even trying to teach the leveret to hunt. Bacon emphasised the cat’s maternal instinct as overriding its predatorial instinct, so much so that he never even indicated why and how the cat came to be suckling the leveret. (But perhaps it was something like this account of another cat and leveret.) England of 1743 was at peace, but the ever-expanding British empire that brought them into contact with new people, lands and animals: could they be brought under British domestication, too? A homely little tale of predator and prey living together might have been very appealing.

Bacon’s interpretation also has similiarities with our own modern tendencies in anthropomorphization; we look for examples of nurturing behaviours–our own best selves, as reflected in the animal world. But his interpretation differs from ours, as well. Where we might read the animal behaviour as emotion (as with the video showing Koko’s grief), Bacon was more circumspect in making that comparison, describing the pair “as fond of one another, as can be”.

In any case, the real animal curiosity as far as Bacon was concerned, was not the cat and leveret relationship. In the letter, he gave as many lines to another point of interest:

I know not whether it be a curiosity to mention, that our neighbor Mr. Crawley has a breed of white, quite white Game hares. The young ones are speckled, when young, but grow quite white, as they grow up. Sr. Hans can tell whether these things are worth mentioning or not.

Now that line of enquiry is very different from our modern interests, but certainly fit with the eighteenth-century attempts to classify the world around them. When looking at accounts of animal friendships, then and now, context is indeed everything.

Letter 2004

William Beauvoir to Hans Sloane – January 19, 1714/15


Item info

Date: January 19, 1714/15
Author: William Beauvoir
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4044
Folio: ff. 11-12



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 11] Calais the 19th Jan:ry 1714/15 Sir, Had not I been order’d to go on board the Yatch at Greenw:ch the Monday after I had the Honour to wait upon You at Your House, I design’d that very day to have paid You my Respects to return You my humble Thanks for Your extraordinary Favours, & to have receiv’d Yr farther commands. I wish I may get some thing worth Yr acceptance at my Return from Paris, where I am afraid I shall not soon arrive, because having the Case of My Lord Stairs Family, & Equipage on b:d the Yatch, I must go from hence to Havre de Grace, & then up the River Seine. As the Winds, w:ch have hither to detaind us here are uncertain, the Delivery of the small Parcell, You was so kind as to intrust me with, is also uncertain. But I can assure You, that when I come to Paris, I’l loose no time to wait upon Your Friend. Our stay here hath given me an Opportunity to have a transient View of the New Canal at Mardike, & of Dunkirk. as You was pleas’d to signify, that what observations I made in my Journey woud not be troublesome, I have venturd the inclos’d account, w:ch if thought worth yr Perusal & its being Communicated to some of yr Friends, I beg may not be known to come from me. Whilst You as’d me with so much Humanity & kindness at Yr House, I try’d many times, but had not the Power to do it, to acquaint You, that Yr Pupill is marry’d to [?], who loves her intirely; who cannot well be suspected to have had any other View in the Match, but to have a Wife, whom he values more than himself, who will make it his study by honest Methods to better his Circumstances to maintain her comfortably; & who most humbly begs You will be so good as to forgive his marrying her without Your Consent. He hopes, that You will be inclin’d to believe, that she hath not dispos’d of her self to disadvantage, & therefore that Yr great Goodness will dispose You to grant his Request. Permit me, Sir, earnestly to intreat You to make another, (viz) to vouchsafe to continue Your kind Care & Guardianship of her, & to keep her Marriage secret till his Return, because the disclosing of it now woud undoubtedly be prejudicial. To conclude he begs Leave to subscribe himself, Sir, Your most humble & most obet serv:t Wm Beauvoir

William Beauvoir was Chaplain to John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair.




Patient Details

Letter 1691

William Derham to Hans Sloane – August 18, 1710


Item info

Date: August 18, 1710
Author: William Derham
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4042
Folio: ff. 164-165



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 165] Sr Upminster Aug 18 1710 Yesterday dining with Sr Richd Child gave me an opportunity of meeting old Lady Child (formerly widow of the famous Mr Chr: Willughby) & Mrs Willughby daughter of The same Mr Willughby, with whom I had a long conversation about the draughts of In- sects wch Mr Will- left behind him, & wch I saw in Mr Rays hands. I earnestly recom- mended to them to have them engraved, & promised my assistance to sort them, & make references of them to ye published Book, &c. But they told me yt Sr Tho: Willughby, & they also for their parts took it ill, yt Mr Will papers should be published in Mr Rays name, & he carry away yt honr they thought due to their Far, yt Sr Thomas & Dr Mann had laboured in yework, for near 2 years, & had divers Plates engraved in order to its publica[ti]on, wch are now lying by them. But they said they would consult Sr Tho. In the matter, & they did believe if Mt Rays Hist. Insect. could bear an Edition in Willughbys name or to as to do him due honour whose share therein is the greatest, yt St Tho: and they would be at the ex- pence of Engraving the Plates, & give us another & far better Edition of ye Hist. Insectorum. I had them about me, & shewed them several Lrs of Mr Rays to me relating to ye publica[ti]on of his Hist: Insect. in his life-timel wchthey desired copies of, but I put off by delays for some rea- sons I will tell you. If you remember I was of opini- on when the matter was first transacted in the Society, & I chosen of ye Committee, yt we had better not be hasty in the publica[ti]on, till be had consulted Sr Tho: Will- in the case: & I find by them if we had done so, we should have had all Mr Willughbies Icons, & other too me at their charge. I give you this speedy notice of our yesterdays discourse, because I know you will hear further of it, & yt you may transact ac- cordingly wth Sr Tho: Will-, or any body else for the service & benefit of that Book, as also think of some excuse for our publica[ti]on thereof wth out their knowledge, wch they look upon as no better than surreptitious. I made the best excuse I could, as yt we are teized for the Book, I were all of us in hast to have any thin that their Far was so far concerned in, & a book yt was indeed so much wanted in the curious & learned world, & some other things I will tell you of, all wch some what appeased them. And as you must expect to hear all this over again, so I leave you to farther ex- cuse the Society, & to sollicite Sr Thomass favour for the Plates, wch I believe it will be much in your power to obtain. I should be glad to see you & talk wth you farther about this, but we are busy still in harvest, yt I cant come to London, but wish for you here, where you shall find an hearty wellcome to Your much obliged humble servt Wm Derham My Wifes humble service to you, & mine to yr Lady.

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 2 June 2011]).




Patient Details

Letter 1764

William Derham to Hans Sloane – July 13, 1711


Item info

Date: July 13, 1711
Author: William Derham
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4042
Folio: ff. 319-320



Original Page



Transcription

[fol. 320] Sr Upminster Jul 13 1711 I have enquired after Sr Rich Hendersons estate at Stilton, & all the information I can get of it, of one yt knows it pretty well is that it is worth 150 pound not 170 as was giv- en out. What sort of Land it is will best be seen on the Spot: but generally the land there- abouts is a light sand, only in the bottom a strong clay: but how much of one or the other I have not had any time to see, being strictly confined at home to attend people yt come to compound with me for Tithes. If you think of buying it I will be absolutely necessary for you to come & see it your self, & to get some skilful person to view both the Land & Buildings. My Lady An- derson (the principal manager) is for the most part in town: & I have sent to enquire where to be met with, but they have been remiss in answering me. You may perhaps find it out your self among some of the Lawyers. I had not the good fortune to see any part of ye last Eclipse [Sun] by reason of clouds, & fear it was the same at London for I looked from my Steeple to see where it was fair where nearby; but in our least vertuose parts (the Hundreds) the Heavens smiled all the while. The observations in my Paper of [Sun] Spots were very exact & true, about the vast diminution of the [Sun]s diamr at the Horizon. Be pleased, wth my humble service to tell Dr Halley & Mr Waller so, & I will satisfy you about it when I have better leisure. It was not wholly from the Re- fractions. In great hast the Post calling, Sr Your much obliged humble servt 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

Introducing Sir Hans Sloane

Sir Hans Sloane. Mezzotint by J. Faber, junior, 1729, after Sir G. Kneller, 1716. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Introduction

This overview of Sir Hans Sloane’s life is intended to provide context for the correspondence, but you can find other stories about Sloane and his family in the blog posts, as well as searching the letters under the subject-heading ‘Sloane Family’.

Early Life

Hans Sloane was born in Killyleagh, Co. Down on 16 April 1660 to Protestant parents Alexander and Sarah Sloane. His father was an agent for James Hamilton (Viscount Claneboye, later Earl of Clanbrassil) and receiver-general of taxes for the county. During his lifetime, Sir Hans Sloane was well-known as a physician, scientist and collector. Today, his books, manuscripts, curiosities and plant specimens provide the foundation collections of the British Library, British Museum, Natural History Museum and Chelsea Physic Garden (all in London). An electoral ward in London (Hans Town) remains named after him, as do several streets around Sloane Square.

Education

Although his early schooling took place in Killyleagh, Sloane moved at the age of nineteen to London, where he studied medicine for the next four years. He then moved to Paris for three months, where he worked at the Jardin Royale des Plantes and the Hopital de la Charite. In 1683, he took his doctorate at the University of Orange, then attended the University of Montpellier until late May 1684. Sloane later received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Oxford in 1701. Throughout his studies, Sloane was particularly interested in chemistry and botany, forming close relationships with well-known people in those fields: John Ray, Robert Boyle and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort.

Marriage

Sloane married Elizabeth Rose in 1695. As the daughter London alderman John Langley and widow of Fulk Rose of Jamaica, his wife brought significant property to the marriage: her father’s estate and an income from her late husband’s Jamaican properties. They had four children, two of whom survived until adulthood. Hans and Mary died as infants. Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons, Hampshire, while Elizabeth married Charles Cadogan, who would become the 2nd Baron Cadogan of Oakley. Sloane’s wife predeceased him in 1724.

Early Career

Hans_Sloane00Sloane returned to London to practice medicine. Thomas Sydenham, a physician noted for his application of scientific observation to medical cases, became an advocate for his career and introduced him to prospective patients. On April 13, 1687, Sloane was admitted as a fellow to the Royal College of Physicians, London.

In the same year, Sloane became the personal physician to Christopher Monck, the second duke of Albermarle. The Duke was leaving to become Governor of Jamaica and Sloane was eager for the opportunity to study new plants and drugs. Sloane was in Jamaica from December 1687 to March 1689. The Duke had died in October 1688, but his household was unable to return to England immediately because of the ongoing revolution. During his stay in Jamaica, Sloane kept notes about the weather, the landscape and the plants. He also collected samples, including 800 plants, many of which were new to Europe. Sloane remained in the employ of the Duchess of Albemarle for nearly four years before setting up his own practice in Bloomsbury, a fashionable part of London.

 

 

The Royal Society

Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685 and remained an active member throughout his life. He played an extensive role in its administration. By 1695, he was Secretary. When he became Secretary in 1695, the Society appeared to be in a state of decline, with the Philosophical Transactions even lapsing for a time. Until 1712, Sloane was responsible for the continued publication of the Philosophical Transactions and for promoting the Society. He chased up members whose accounts were in arrears and encouraged donations, as well as corresponding extensively with scholars across the world. From 1727 to 1741, Sloane was President of the Society; he resigned at the age of eighty-one because of poor health.

Scholarship

Sloane kept the Royal Society at the centre of the learned world. He was well-connected with scholars across Europe, maintaining an extensive and detailed correspondence. Sloane did not write many books or articles, being busy with his medical practice and administrative commitments to the Royal Society. Even so, his contributions were regarded favourably. From the 1690s, Sloane wrote his observations from the West Indies for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Topics included philosophical-transactions-v1_510earthquakes and botany. In 1696, he published a catalogue of Jamaican plants, which he dedicated to the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. The catalogue was well-received, providing a better system of naming plants and detailed descriptions. Sloane’s major work was the Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers, and Jamaica, with the natural history . . . of the last of those islands, the first volume of which was published in 1707 and the second volume in 1725. The book was recognised even outside England, receiving an excellent review in the French Journal des Sçavans.

 

 

Collections

Sloane started to build his collection during his trip to Jamaica, bringing back items such as plants, corals, minerals, insects and animals. By the 1690s, he also started to acquire other people’s collections, which included books, manuscripts and antiquities. He had extensive links with people travelling abroad, from Carolina to China, from whom he purchased items or with whom he exchanged samples and information. To keep track of his expanding collection, Sloane methodically catalogued every item in detail. As the collection grew, he also needed space, buying at first the house next door in Bloomsbury, then later a much larger property in Chelsea. For Sloane, the point was not simply to acquire items, but to study the natural world and to understand its medical applications. He also permitted anyone who was interested in the collection to view it.

Honours and Appointments

Sloane received a number of honours related to his practice of medicine. By 1705, the Edinburgh College of Physicians elected him as a fellow and from 1719 to 1735, he was the President of the Royal College of Physicians in London. In 1712, Sloane became Physician Extraordinary to the Queen, even attending her during her last illness in 1714, and was frequently called in to treat members of the royal family. George I named Sloane a Baronet in 1716, while George II made him Physician-in-Ordinary.

He was also recognised for his contributions in natural philosophy. In 1699, he became a correspondent of the French AcadĂ©mie Royale des Sciences and was named foreign associate in 1709. Several academies of science elected him as a foreign member: the Prussia (1712), St. Petersburg (1735), Madrid (1735) and Göttingen (1752). A medal from 1744 commemorated Sloane’s presidency of the Royal Society.

Medical Practice

Sloane’s patients were primarily from the middle and upper classes, coming from across the British Isles and, on chocolate-wrapoccasion, Europe. Although he was not known for being an innovator, he was respected for his careful observations and willingness to use new remedies once they proved helpful. He prescribed, for example, quinine (distilled from Peruvian Bark), invested in it heavily and wrote about it for the Philosophical Transactions. He was also instrumental in the adoption of smallpox inoculation in England, using it on his own family and successfully encouraging its use for the Royal Family. Sloane has also been widely linked to the promotion of milk chocolate as a remedy.

 

Charity

In addition to his Bloomsbury practice, Sloane was appointed as a physician of Christ’s Hospital from 1694 to 1730. Hospitals at this time were only for the care of the poor and Sloane donated his annual hospital salary back to Christ’s Hospital. Sloane also supported the Royal College of Physician’s dispensary, which aimed to provide inexpensive medicines and he ran a free surgery every morning. He was a member of the board of the Foundling Hospital and made significant donations to other hospitals.

Later Life

Sloane, 10 September 1740, Jonathan Richardson the Elder. Credit: Yale Center for British Art.

At the age of 79, Sloane suffered from a disorder with some paralysis, from which he did not recover. He retired to his home in Chelsea in 1742, where he remained until his death in 1753. The house in Chelsea was filled with his collections of books and curiosities, an early museum which the learned and well-to-do (including the Prince and Princess of Wales) made appointments to visit. It became his growing intention that his collections should be made publicly available and the collection was to be offered for sale to the King, the Royal Society, or to other specified institutions. After George II declined, the trustees petitioned successfully parliament to purchase the collection for the good of the nation at the cost of ÂŁ20,000, a sum which went to his daughters. The true cost of the collection was valued at upwards of ÂŁ80,000.

 

Selected References

Brooks, E. Sir Hans Sloane: The Great Collector and His Circle. London, 1954.

De Beer, G. R. Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum. London, 1953.

Delbourgo, James. Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane. London, 2017.

MacGregor, Arthur, ed. Sir Hans Sloane: Collector, Scientist, Antiquary, Founding Father of the British Museum. London, 1994.

MacGregor, Arthur. “Sloane, Sir Hans, baronet (1660—1753)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25730].

 

 

Sir Hans Sloane, AbbĂ© Bignon and Mrs. Hickie’s Pigeons

In 1720, Dr. Den. Hickie complained to Sloane about an ongoing dispute with a neighbour:

the Lord of the Manor who is intent upon me as a stranger to do me prejudice & particularly in destroying a few pigeons that my wife has always kept without molestation since first shee bought her estate in this Countrey.

The country in this case referred to France, not just the countryside. Dr and Mrs Hickie had moved to Meulan sur Seine from London. It was “the profes that you have given me of your friendship whilest I resided & practiced in London”, Hickie wrote, that “encourages me to take the liberty of importuning you at present”. Hickie reminded Sloane that the friendship had not been one way, as he had been sending his observations to the Royal Society on Sloane’s directions.

Sloane might not seem the obvious choice to assist with a neighbourly dispute in France, until Hickie specified who is neighbour was: one of the AbbĂ© Bignon’s brothers. By 1720, Sloane and the AbbĂ© had been regular correspondents for over twenty-five years (which Ann-Marie Hansen discusses in another post). Although Hickie had met the AbbĂ© in person and been received upon Sloane’s “acc[oun]t wth a great deal of civility & friendship”, he clearly was not in a position to ask the AbbĂ© directly for assistance. But he hoped that Sloane would intercede with the AbbĂ© on his behalf:

a word speakeing from the AbbĂ© at his Brother is enough to free me from the disturbance that this man designes to give me therefore I hope that you’ld contribute to protect me by your recommendation.

This is a letter that highlights the complicated routes that patronage might take. One could not just approach someone of the Abbé’s standing on a limited acquaintance, especially in France where the rules of patronage were even more stringent than in England. An intermediary was crucial. And who better than the one who had introduced Hickie to the AbbĂ© in the first place?

But
 it’s really the dispute over pigeons in this letter that captures my interest.

A rather fine pigeon. From John Moore, A Treatise on Domestic Pigeons (1765). Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

A rather fine pigeon. From John Moore, A Treatise on Domestic Pigeons (1765). Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

Pigeons were not just valuable livestock, but one that owners (or “fanciers” as they even called themselves in the 1700s) seemed to hold in great affection. The most common use of pigeons was for food, which provided a steady supply of meat year round. In his Columbarium: or, the pigeon-house (London, 1735),

John Moore argued that pigeon dung was particularly important for fertilizing crops, making medicines, tanning leather and producing salt-petre. The dung was so good that it “challengeth the Priority, not only of the Dung of Fowls, but of all other Creatures whatsoever, on the accont of its usefulness in human Life.” Moore’s chapter on treating pigeon distempers suggests the lengths that fanciers might go to care for their pigeons: special diets, imported ingredients (such as tobacco) and attentive nursing. The attack on Mrs Hickie’s pigeons must have been upsetting for the Hickies on several levels.

Alhough Hickie suggested that Bignon was attacking the pigeons because the Hickies were not local (a natural fear for anyone living in a foreign land), the reasons are likely far more complicated. Whereas there were no regulations on who might own pigeons in eighteenth-century England, French law was very clear–only lords of the manor had the right to keep or kill pigeons. This feudal right was considered to be such a fundamental mark of inequality that it was revoked in the second article of the 4 August Decrees of 1789, which were passed by the National Assembly to settle peasant unrest in the countryside during the French Revolution.

It’s unclear which brother Hickie meant, but all three brothers were firmly entrenched in the aristocracy: Louis was the Major General of the King’s Armies, JĂ©rĂŽme III was the Intendant of Amiens and Armand Roland was the Intendant of Paris. Such men would not have looked kindly upon mere commoners, however well-to-do, keeping pigeons.

Hickie may have been astute enough to spot the need for an intermediary in the dispute, but he had made a classic ex-pat mistake of fundamentally missing an important cultural difference. What would have been a simple matter of bad neighbourliness in England was at the heart of aristocratic privilege in France.

Letter 1667

John Arbuthnot to Hans Sloane – April 2, 1710


Item info

Date: April 2, 1710
Author: John Arbuthnot
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4042
Folio: f. 120



Original Page



Transcription

Arbuthnot is working to change ‘the crest of the family coat’ and provides a description and small drawing of it for Sloane. He is thinking of changing the ‘peacocks head for Common Cocks head’ and altering the motto. Arbuthnot was a physician and satirist most famous for his John Bull pamphlets which led to the character becoming a national symbol (Angus Ross, Arbuthnot , John (bap. 1667, d. 1735), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/610, accessed 14 June 2011]).




Patient Details

  • Patient info
    Name: N/A Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough
    Gender:
    Age:
  • Description

    Mordaunt has sinus issues, small pox, and his face expresses illness. Arbuthnot is afraid he will slip into a coma.

  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
    Previous Treatment:

    Arbuthnot administered 'Material diffusions' and had Mordaunt maintain 'good spitting', which made him a little better by the 'ninth day'.


    Ongoing Treatment:

    Continued spitting.


    Response:
  • More information
  • Medical problem reference
    Coma, Smallpox