The Josselins, part 3 and Receipts

The Josselins, all 12 of them, consulted a physician so rarely that it only happened on 3 occasions.  Once was for the sickly 6 day old baby Ralph, who then died 4 days later.  The second was for the adult Ralph during a bad ague (cycling fevers, sweats and shivering cold), and the third was 2 years after he had been having trouble with his leg.  Then he visited one doctor and wrote another.  He consulted two surgeons (one a female!) and had an apothecary make up the prescription of one of the physicians (Beier, 121).

Ralph and Jane depended on their own medical knowledge, as well as that of their friends, part-time healers, and people who worked as medical professionals, like midwives, nurses and bone-setters.  Neighbors came to nurse and to give emotional support, as when Jane was ill with grief after Mary's death (120).

It was actually Jane who was the expert in the family on medical treatments.  She made at least two of the medications she administered -- hyssop syrup and a distillation of roses.  She dressed cuts, burns and ulcers.  She applied leeches for a friend, and helped with her daughters' and friends' confinements around their times of labor, delivery, and early care of the baby.  The family used herbal remedies and simple medications, rather than the more complicated compounded medications chosen by physicians and apothecaries (118).

The person in charge of healing in each family (usually the wife/mother) would keep a book of "receipts" or recipes, sometimes combined with the family cookbook and sometimes not.  They were completely hand written. Wesley's printed copy of Primitive Physick was a compilation and distillation of the best medical knowledge of the time, so the family healer could access other remedies beyond what they already knew.

The top photo is of Bridget Parker's collection of medical and cookery receipts from 1633, displayed at the Wellcome Museum (viewed 14 October 2012).  Books like this were passed through generations.  The page to the left is titled "A Most Excellent Medicine against the Plague" on the top and "Vinegar of Rue" (an evergreen shrub) partway down the page.  It is from 1750-1800 (Source: Wellcome Library, London).
 
Occasionally, a writer will record why the recipe is supposed to work, but typically it was assumed one already understood or did not care (as with cookbooks today).  (Pennell, Sarah.  "The Thing is ... Mad Dogs Do Bite Englishmen: Rabies in 18th Century England," lecture at the Wellcome Library, London, 17 October 2012).

Now, I know your tendency is to think that John Wesley, in giving health and medical advice to the Methodists, got his "receipts" from old wives and young husbands, but actually he cites or mentions nearly 100 different medical works in his revisions of Primitive Physick and in his other writings (Maddox, Health, 5).