The genesis of the American materia medica : including a biographical sketch of "John Josselyn, gent," and the medical and materia medica references in Josselyn's "New-Englands rarities discovered," etc., and in his "Two voyages to New-England," / with critical notes and comments by Harvey Wickes Felter.

  • Felter, Harvey Wickes, 1865-1927.
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The genesis of the American materia medica : including a biographical sketch of "John Josselyn, gent," and the medical and materia medica references in Josselyn's "New-Englands rarities discovered," etc., and in his "Two voyages to New-England," / with critical notes and comments by Harvey Wickes Felter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the same way; but the last is a desperate disease and kills many. For the pleu- risie I have given Coriander-seed prepared, Carduus seed, and Harts-horn pulverized with good success, the dose one dram in a cup of Wine. “The Stone 10 terribly afflicts many and the Gout, and Sciatica,11 for which take Onions roasted, peeled and stampt, then boil them with neats-feet oyl and Rhum to a plaister, and apply it to the hip. “Head-aches are frequent, Palsies,12 Dropsies, Worms, Noli-me-tangeres,13 Cancers, pestilent Feavers,14 Scurvies,15 the body corrupted with Sea-diet, Beef and Pork tainted, Butter and Cheese corrupted, fish rotten, a long voy¬ age, coming into the searching sharpness of a purer climate, causeth death and sickness amongst them. “Men and Women keep their complexions, but lose their Teeth: the Women are pittifully Tooth-shaken; whether through the coldness of the climate, or by sweet-meats of which they have store, I am not able to affirm, 1° Urinary calculi. (Felter.) 11 In “Rarities” Josselyn refers to sciatida as one of the diseases that kill. Just what he intends is not exactly clear, but from the location for the application here mentioned it is evident that he refers in this place to sciatica as we now understand it— neuritis and perineuritis of the great sciatic nerve. (Felter.) 12 Paralyses. (Felter.) 12 “Noli-me-tangeres”—Noli-me-tangere. Literally “Touch me not.” A name that has been applied to various destructive ulcers. Thus in 1850 it was regarded, as re¬ corded by Hooper (Med. Diet.), as “a species of herpes affecting the skin and cartilages of the nose, very difficult to cure, because it is exasperated by most applications. The disease generally commences with small, superficial spreading ulcerations of the alae of the nose, which become more or less concealed beneath the furfuraceous scabs. The whole nose is frequently destroyed by the progressive ravages of this peculiar disorder, which sometimes cannot be stopped or retarded by any treatment, external or internal.” Gould (Me'd. Diet.) calls it “Rodent Ulcer” (Gould gives rodent ulcer as a “form of ulcer, probably epitheliomatous, which gradually eats away soft tissues and bones”) ; Dorland (Med. Diet.), “Rodent ulcer, malignant ulcer.” Webster’s International Dic¬ tionary (1906) says: “A name formerly applied to several varieties of ulcerative cuta¬ neous diseases, but now restricted to Lupus exedens, an ulcerative affection of the nose.” Noli-me-tangere, or rodent ulcer (so called from eating away like a rat) is now generally conceded to be of a carcinomatous or epitheliomatous nature. The evolution of pathological history and names is well illustrated by the succession of views and names given in this note. (Felter.) 14 “Pestilential feavers” may refer to the plague of the Oriental type (bubonic plague) or to typhus fever (possibly typhoid), most likely to the latter. Plague was a general name broadly given certain great epidemics which spread over Europe. No great epidemic of this type reached America very early. The great pestilence or epi¬ demic disease that decimatdd London in 1665 of nearly 70,000 persons, or nearly one- third of her population, was probably the Oriental or bubonic plague, which was some¬ times called also the Oriental typhus. It was the Black Plague or Black Death of his¬ tory. The reduction of Norway’s population from 2,000,000 to 300,000 gives some idea of the ravages of the Black Death. The New England “pestilential feavers” were prob¬ ably akin to the typhus type, but of lesser severity than those of the continent. See also footnote 5 under Josselyn’s “Rarities.” (Felter.) 15 Scurvy, the food-deficiency disease. (Felter.)