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Home » Health, Welfare and Charity » Hospitals and medical care » Medical recipes

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Page 1

A set of prescriptions for the poor, 1761, frontispiece [image 1 of 38]
  • This is a volume of recipes, herbal remedies and household hints, compiled during the mid-nineteenth century (c.1845) and owned by Lady de Rutzen of Slebech Hall (near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire). It contains an interesting assortment of recipes, including 'calves feet jelly', 'hare soup', goosebery wine and the intriguingly-named 'Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding'. The herbal remedies include cures for 'corns', 'gnat bites' and 'sea sickness' as well as a medicine which was believed to alleviate whooping cough. Among the 'household hints' we find advice on the cleaning and varnishing of pictures, how 'to take spots out of Marble', how to 'prevent water penetrating boots or shoes', as well as recipes for homemade soap and the removal of iron mould from linen. Prior to the advent of modern, manufactured products, housekeepers and housewives had to devise their own cleaning agents, often using 'recipes', such as these, which had been handed down through the generations.
Recipe Book owned by Lady de Rutzen, Slebech Hall, c.1845 [image 1 of 31]
  • An opening page from a personal notebook begun in 1836 and containing a strange assortment of mostly medical potions and recipes recorded by James Williams of Brecon. He seems to have been fond of adding flourishes and doodles to some of his notes.
Book of practical recipes entitled 'Bleed, Blister and Purge', 1836 [image 1 of 6]
  • This recipe 'was taken out of Cathorp Church in Lincolnshire, where many in the town were bitten by mad dogs, and all that took this medicine did well, and those that did not died mad.'
A Recipe to Cure the Bite of a Mad Dog, Llantilio Pertholey Parish Register, Llantilo, c. 1700s
  • Diary for the period 26-31 August 1734. On 26 August, William notes that the weather was extremely rough. Despite the weather, William employs a number of men to reap the barley during the week. On 28 August he gave his daughter's maid a shilling to attend the funeral of Mrs Anne Williams, Llanfaethlu. On 29 August, William's dog was bitten by a viper. William killed the snake before removing its fat. He then melted the fat and applied it to the swelling.
Diary of William Bulkeley, Brynddu, Llanfechell, vol. 1, 1734-43 [p. 40, image 4 of 18]