MEDICAL RECIPES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
By JOHN HEWITT.
Among the manuscripts of the Cathedral library at Lichfield is a folio volume of Recipes belonging to Sir John Floyer, physician to King Charles the Second, who resided and practised in Lichfield. He was born at Hints, near that city, where the family has flourished to the present day. He published several works of a professional character, the chief of which was an essay "On the Use and Abuse of hot, cold, and temperate Baths in England." Near a rocky glen in the vicinity of Lichfield he constructed a cold bath, to which he gave the name of Saint Chad's Bath. This property afterwards came into the possession of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and was formed by him into that "Botanic Garden" which in his time had considerable celebrity. The bath buildings and the garden still remain, in a state of ruin indeed, but very picturesque.
Sir John Floyer died in 1733, and bequeathed his library to Queen's College, Oxford.
The volume of Recipes and Prescriptions is entirely in manuscript, and appears to have been written at different periods of life. We give a few samples of the contents:—
"Dimness of Sight."
" For dimness of ye Eyes eat 12 leaves of Rue in a morning with bread and butter, and it will very much availe."
"Bleeding stopd."
"Take red nettles, stamp ym and straine them alone, then take yc juice and rubb all over ye forehead and temples, so lett it dry upon ye face 7 or 8 hours, after you ma}' wash it of, but if yu blecde againe, renew it."
For the plague, we have "the Medicine yt ye Ld. Major of London had sent him from Q. Elisa:" The ingredients
