Beschreibung:

Important Quaker Medical Manuscripts Quaker Interest: Leadbeater (Mary) 1758-1826 - Two Manuscript Volumes containing Receipts for Herbal Prescriptions. Mary Leadbeater, daughter of Richard Shackleton, was born at Ballitore, Co. Kildare, Ireland, in a Quaker family. She was quite thoroughly educated, and was aided in her literary studies by the noted Aldborough Wrighton, a man of great ability. Her grandfather, Abraham Shackleton, was Edmund Burke's schoolmaster; and she, with her Father, visited Burke in London where she also became acquainted with Sir. J. Reynolds and George Crabbe. During her life she earned a reputation as a writer, with several publications: Poems (1808); Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry (1811); and perhaps her finest work, Annals of Ballitore (published 1862 as The Leadbeater Papers by R.D. Webb). Throughout her career she remained a close friend and correspondent of Burke. The two books contain 796 and 496 receipts for medicines that describe Mrs. Leadbeater as an accomplished Herbalist. The prescriptions are carefully written with ink in her hand; both volumes are 15 « x 19 « cms in size and are bound in green vellum. The more complete book, which is indexed, doubtless saw much use, and the spine, once repaired with linen, is loose and the vellum stained. The text in both volumes is quite well preserved. Here one may find a tried and true cure for The King's Evil; An extraordinary Cure for Pains; Ointment of Marshmallows; Snail Syrup; an Elder-tea for St. Anthony's Fire; cures for colds, for cancers, for eye pearls and burns, for an ague or dropsy or wind; and the forerunner to the aspirin tablet, an exotic (and infallible) receipt for Megrim in the Head: Take Peacock's Dung powdered: take as much as will lie on a sixpence in a spoonful of white- wine for three mornings together Mrs. Leadbeater gleaned her medical information from a variety of sources: from friends, from newspaper articles and advertisements, etc., and frequently a receipt bears an ascription, e.g., Daffy's Elixir; Doctor Fothergill's Aloetic Tincture for complaints of a gouty nature; Ruffy's Pills; a cure for Lunacy from the Farmer's Journal 1825, etc. Also included are several remedies for diseases of sheep and cattle and some 25 cures for a variety of injuries and illnesses in horses. For example: For a Horse that's very ill by Cold: Take two Quartes of Ale, half an ounce Diapenthe half an ounce Anise-seeds, half an ounce Elecampane powder, half an ounce sulphur brimstone, some grains of Paradise near half an ounce: dissolve & warm it & give the Horse to drink. Should you need to make a horse lie down, the way to do it is: Take half an ounce of Tobacco-Snuff & mix with Hog's- Grease, & rub on the Back-bone (of the horse) Finally, Mrs. Leadbeater has recorded several miscellaneous bits of information: directions for making cold-cream, opium, rhubarb powder and shoe blacking (which includes half a pint of beer); how to wash flannel and white silk-handkerchiefs, how to concoct various mineral waters and pomades; and a glorious panacea. Although the actual medicinal properties of the receipts must be considered with scepticism, the two volumes by Mr. Burke's good friend contain much of charm and interest. 1. D.N.B., Vol. XXXII, p.313 2. Ibid. Vol. LI, p.336 Very rare Manuscript compilations by one of the most famous irish Quakers. As a m/ss., w.a.f. (1)