DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE. 159
Middleton, our Minister,1 was cur'd of a dropsy in ye cod or
scrotum by eating gentian every morning," and of how, in 1708,
"the chair-maker of Witham" was cured of dropsy by drinking
beer in which mustard-seed had been steeped. Elsewhere, we
have—
A Prescription or Specifick for curing Distraction (both Melancholy, Frenzy, and
Mania simple), from my Father Allen's Practis; who cured generally and cured
more and [more] perfectly than any man or all that I ever heard of in England,
. . :—A tincture of red poppy flowers or cake, two ounces or three, in a
quart and pint of wafer, acuated with Ol. Vitriol; ; boyle a little in a pipkin and
infuse, covered, a night and a day ; add half-a-pint of cooling oyle of the head of
red roses and nymphaea, with vinegar of roses and poppies, all mixt. [This
produces] gentle and frequent purging, rarely a vomit'; but it is good if the person
is not so bad as to refuse drinking gruel and [he should] avoid any beer if
possible. Be sure [the mixture is] strong. [Practise] bleeding, especially at the
full moon and three days before, and repeat as rage requires.
There is much more of the same kind.
Another thing which these notes bring into prominence was
the disgusting origin and nature of some of the remedies
approved by the medical faculty in Allen's day and used by him.
For instance, tinctures made from the dungs of various animals
seem to have been in common use as medicine. Even the great
Ray seems to have taken nasty physic of this kind ; for, says
Allen in one place (p. 115) :—" Mr. Ray was cured of [a
jaundys] by [taking] an infusion of stone-hors dung,2 as I
remember, in beer." That Ray really believed he had been
cured by this decoction is clear from his own words ; for, writing
on 22nd January 1797 to Sir Hans Sloane, to ask his advice in
regard to an attack of jaundice from which his daughter was
suffering, he says3 :—
I myself was cured of that disease by an infusion of stone-horse dung steeped in
ale for a night, with a little saffron added and in the morning strained, and the
liquor sweetened with a little sugar. I took about half-a-pint at a time and was
cured perfectly with twice taking, as I remember. I pray you give us your
judgment of this medicine.
In another place (p. 117), Allen says :—
Mrs. Moses Stow told me of a cure performed [on a consumptive patient without a
cough] by steeping near a pint of sheep's dung every night in a pint of milk, and
the liquor next morning, being prest and settled (being about half a pint), is to be
drank all in the morning.
1 See ante, p. 150.
2 The dung of a stallion or "entire" horse.
3 Lankester's Correspondence of John Ray. p. 311 (1848).