John Locke, 1632-1704, physician and philosopher : a medical biography / with an edition of the medical notes in his journals.

Kenneth Dewhurst

Date:: 1963

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: John Locke, 1632-1704, physician and philosopher : a medical biography / with an edition of the medical notes in his journals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$a gentle heat, then cook on a slow fire to 1 pint. Strain. While hot put into a closed vessel for 2 hours and pour on | oz. of English saffron, 2 drachms each of nutmeg and sharp cinnamon and 1 drachm of cloves. Strain and keep for use. One pound of good opium will make 11 or 12 ounces of good extract. Thursd. July 25. Take 8 pints of water and \ oz. of [saltpetre]. Water p- 18 trees with this and the fruit will be much better tasted. E. Pembroke Thursd. Sept. 12. Make a paste of the juice of elder berries and dry (Lam) flour. Cook in moderate sized cakes in an oven till hard enough to powder. Mix this powder again with the same juice into a paste and cook again. Repeat a third time. Take 1 scruple or \ drachm 2 or 3 times a day for 3 days, and then once a day, for acidity and pain in the stomach and diarrhoea or lientery. v: Pharmac. Lond. Mr. Freke 1 Sat. Jan. 17. [1691] 2 To Oates. [Locke now settles with the Cud- p- 82 worths at Oates in Essex, but spends several weeks each year in London, usually at Mr. Pawlings'.] 3 Thursd. April 2. [at Mr. Pawlings'.] Take 1 drachm of English (Latin) [sulphur], dissolve in \ pint of [water] of fumitory. Filter. Take 4 spoonfulls 3 times a day. Memo: the dose of [sulphur] was increased ■| drachm in every pint until the patient came to take the quantity of I- oz. in pint, which quantity was not exceeded because the patient complaind of a nauseousness. Take 2 drachms of the same [sulphur], dissolve in 4 ozs. of [water] of fumitory. Filter. Take in every drink enough to cause a moderate acidity. By this simple [Method] Dr. Goodall cured a woman of a very bad leprosy. Friday Sept. 25. [at Mr. Pawlings'.] Dissolve in [aqua fortis] some precipitated [mercury sublimate] and chalk [water]. Decant or filter the liquid. Very useful for ulcers. Mr. Boyle. I scruple or | drachm of grated chalk twice a day; or 15 grains or I scruple of Rhubarb; or Sweet [mercury sublimate]. For diarrhoea. Dr. Sloud. [Iron] is most effective for sight obscured by vapours. ib. Wednesday Nov. 10. [at Mr. Pawlings'.] Take some crumbled [salt- p. 108 petre]. While it is still warm pour on oil of Terebinth to the height of 3 or 4 fingers in a quite tall vase. Distill in a suitable alembic with well 1 John Freke became a barrister of the Middle Temple in 1676. He was a member of the College, a small private club formed by Locke which met in London. 3 There are no medical entries for 1690. 3 William Pawlings was formerly an Oxford merchant, who became Locke's London landlord. The latter moved from Dorset Court to Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1694.$