DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
9
the patient daily and prescribing different medicaments. Else-
where (p. 53), we find another note, but of a less technical nature,
regarding the same illness:—
A Peripneumonia or Inflammation of the Lungs.—The learned Mr.
Kay, author of the History of Plants and other Natural Historys, my
friend and neighbour, in the 62 year of his age [i.e. 1689] just entred, was
taken with a cold or dry cough, an intense feaver of heat and thirst, trouble-
some cough, colour in his cheeks, and weight or heavyness at his breast,
began to raise bloody [—] and what was with it was some matter
and froth. He was concernd at the diseas, being, in that year, of his
Grand Climacteric12. However, sending for me, I curd him, under God,
with this method:—I bled him in arm once, gave him a pectoral drink
and linctus of Oyle of Almonds and Syrup of Violets and Pectoral Syrup
and Syr. Dealthela to take often: order[ed] Clyster's Emmolient and,
afterwards, when he had raised his load and his feaver abated, [I] ordered
him a little Syrup of Red Poppies, which is a specific in that [disease] and
pleurisies and, indeed, [in] all inflammation. I do not find I gave him
any Elect. of Odiband, which I usually do at last; so he did well. (Note:—
Riverius says purging is mostly dangerous before the 7 day.)"
Near at hand, we find (p. 89) a fuller statement as to the
means by which Ray was cured of the attack of jaundice, already
noticed13:—
"The learned author of those several Parts of Natural History, as well
as a great Master of Botany, Mr. John Ray, my neighbour and honoured
friend, was cured of a jaundys by 2 or 3 daughts of beer in wch. stonehors
dung had been steept; and he sayd [that this medicine] cur'd all the
family he was in and is a sufficient remedy."
Next, one may notice references to illnesses from which two
of Ray's daughters had suffered. Discussing epilepsy, Allen gives
details of some sixteen cases which he had treated, the second
(pp. 10-11) being the following:—
Mr. Ray, of Notly, his youngest daughter, Mrs. Jenny, had an Epilepsy
Feb 23, 1689-90. Being sent for, I gave her . . . [an old and approved
prescription, the details of which he sets out]. She found no benefit till
she took, and continued to take, for about a month or six weeks, a julep
with Antidatus Montagnance, which I call my Mixtura antepileptica.
This she would call for and take if a fit were coming, tho' very unpleasant,
as other children I have found do, from feeling some benefit. Thus she was
cured."
He then gives further particulars of his special mixture (which,
he says, "generally cured"), of his method of administering it,
and of the cases he had cured with it.
12 A climacteric was supposed to be a specially-critical period in a man's life, indicated
by multiples of 7 or 9. The "Grand Climacteric" (7 multiplied by 9) was reached in the
sixty-third year.
13 See ante, xvi., p. 159.