10 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
Elsewhere, in discussing cases of "Chlorosis or Green Sick-
ness in Womenkind" which he had treated, Allen gives (p. 231)
particulars of his treatment of the illness of Ray's daughter Mary
—the treatment which did not satisfy Ray and led to a partial
break in the friendship between the two men, as noticed else-
where.14 He says:—
" But the most od and remarkable case was Mr. Ray's daughter Mary,
about 13 years old, [who] had a green sickness, but [she] was dark skinn'd
80 [it was] not discernible in the face. I sent them steel'd wine, but they
neglected to give it. Three months after, it turn'd to a yellow Jaundys,
and they would not bleed her, and it was difficult to know the remedy,
if Steele or Icteric, wch. would do. We had not time enough to try either
long enough, much less both, so she dyd; tho' the Yellow Electuary with
Chalybeats were wt. I would have given (that is, the Yellow Electuary
on mornings and the Chalybeat Electuary in the afternoon and at night),
but, tho' she dyd in 48 hours, with a heavyness of head like a coma, it.
was evident by the case of her sister that the Jaundys here was only a
symptom and that the cure of the Green Sickness was the thing; for her
sister, Mrs. Margaret, fell soon after ill exactly of the same and had a
Jaundys and at my instance to Mr. Dale, who was then employed and
at my direction, she was cured by steel'd wine."
In another part of the book (p. 145), we find a fuller and
clearer account of the circumstances, already alluded to,15 in
which Charles (Rich) fourth Earl of Warwick (died 1673) had
sought the assistance of Boyle, Ray, and the younger Van Hel-
mont in the cure of his gout. After writing of the latter's father's
method of treating gouty patients, Allen continues:—
" But yet he [i.e. the elder Van Helmont] trusted himself to other vulgar
medicines or simples; for, of this, I had a proof:—The learned naturalist
and philosopher and my friend and neighbour, Mr. Ray, known to the
world by his Historia Plantaru16 and other writings, informed me that the
Earle of Warwick (Charles, being the last), having a severe fit of the gout,
sent to his brother by marryage, the great Mr. Boyl, to desire him to con-
sult young Helmont, the son, about it (because his father speaks so much
of the Coralline Secret), [he] being then in England. Mr. Boyl did so,
and young Helmont's answer was this:—that he would advise him to
[use] what his father us'd to give eas to himself in the gout, wch. he was
troubled with; but, as to a cure, he assur'd Mr. Boyl he was certain his
father had no such [thing], for he had it much himself; but, for ease, he
had recours to the common true Black Hellebor17, [for] wch. the Earl
sent to Mr. Ray to assist him in the getting, that he might not be impos'd
upon. This Mr. Ray had from the Earle's and Mr. Boyl's own mouth[s].'
14 See ante, xvi., pp. 151-153.
15 See ante, xvi., p. 153.
16 Historia Plantarum, 3 vols., 1686-1704.
17 Helleborus niger, the "Christmas Rose."