A Manuscript of Medical Reviews

A Manuscript of Medical Reviews in a new concise and exact Collection from the Ancient and Modern Authors; distinguished ... from all former Collections by the addition of referent marginal letters shewing from what Author any sentence of paragraph is taken; and by figures referring to the prior Authors of matters and points commonly found in some modern Accounts. The second volume has a title-page (p. 938), 'The Art of Physick. The Principles of Physick or the General Institutions and Fundamentals of that Art; delivered in its proper Method and Division. And with the modern corrections and additions'. There are several indexes, and the MS. exhibits a very wide knowledge of 17th cent. medical writings. On the verso of the last leaf of Vol. II is an inscription 'All my Observations and most extraordinary Medicines are posted to this Book from my Day Book and from the Doctor's Files to this Jan. 5th 1714-15.' 'And to this Aprill the 4th 1716'. 'And to this February the 4th 1717-18'. The latest date found is 31 July 1719 in an added note on p. 764. 'William Chalk, 152 Grosvenor Street Camberwell' is faintly written in pencil inside the upper cover of Vol. II. He has also made a calculation of dates, based on the year 1844 beneath the author's dates as given above. Produced in Watford?

1715-1719

2 volumes 1 vol. in 2. 28 ll. + 1427 pp. + 20 ll. folio. 30 × 19 cm. Original calf binding, worn. The pagination before p. 115 is irregular. Pp. 878-889 are on paper of smaller size 28 × 19 cm.

Purchased 1907.

The writer has not been identified though he seems to have been at Leyden University, where he studied under Franciscus [Deleböe] Sylvius [1614-1672], who was professor of medicine there from 1658 to his death. [Cf. p. 412.] But a careful search through R. W. Innes Smith's 'English-speaking Students of Medicine at the University of Leyden' 1932, has failed to suggest an appropriate name. The author appears to have practised at or near Watford, and on pp. 118*-121* he has an entry on 'Epidemic diseases in and about Watford in 1717'. He also speaks on p. 923 of 'my father [in law?] Berrow': a John Berrow was Vicar of Watford who died in 1713.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

On the verso of the first leaf of Vol. I is a note about the MS., signed 'Benj[amin] Bagshawe' [c. 1850]: this owner has also written out a transcript (on paper water-marked 1851) of a leaf from an early edition of Chaucer's 'Complaynt of Venus', which has been pasted down inside the upper cover. This owner may perhaps be Edward Benjamin Bagshawe [1800-1884], Rector of Eyam.