Early Victorian manuscript medical( domestic?) receipt book, made out in medical Latin, with English notes, and including entries on syphilis, rheumatism, children's medicine, 'Ginger Beer Powders' and 'Cement for Electrical Machines'.

117pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper; in contemporary worn vellum binding, with metal clasp, with marbled endpapers. Two sequences of receipts, starting at different ends of the volume, one (rather more businesslike) later than the other. In addition to the total of 117pp. of receipts, each of the two sequences has its own thumb index. Both sequences are written out in medical Latin, with notes in English (for example, after the recipe for 'Cement for Electrical Machines': 'Melt the Resin & Wax together then add the ochre & Plaster paris previously dried, powdered & mixed'). The earlier sequence covers 55pp and in addition to titles in Latin includes recipes for 'Tooth Powder', 'Hair Oil', 'Cough Syrup', 'Horse Medicines', 'Blistering Ointment', 'Ointment for Blemish', 'Lip Salve', 'Scent for Jars', 'Cow Drench', 'Amalgam', 'Blacking', 'Russells Pills', 'Cold Cream', 'Marking Ink', 'Ginger Beer', 'Beet Top Liquid', 'Soda Powders', 'Pungent Scent', 'Mange Ointment', 'Lotion for Bugs', 'Godfreys Cordial', 'Liniment for Sprains in Horses', 'Liquid for Brass', 'Goulard Ointment', 'Salt Lemon', 'French Polish', 'Composition for Balloons', 'Mastic Varnish', 'Almond Paste', 'Steel Preserver', 'Water Proof India Rubber Polish', 'For Browning Gun Barrels', 'Tooth Ache Drops', 'Powder for Wounds & cracked Heels', 'Pomade', 'Black Ink'. The second sequence covers 62pp., and is somewhat more serious, with the few headings including 'Syphilis', 'Mixture for Rheumatism' and 'Stimulating Liniment' (but also entry for 'Currie Powder', dated 1848), section entitled "Medicine for children", c.24pp. (including an ascription to Astley Cooper, a treatment for "gravel"), whooping cough, 'after scarlatina', ''for the head', 'Apply with a camel hair pencil', diarrhoea & dyspepsia', etc. etc. Description of treatment for 'Hooping Cough' begins: 'To a child one year old, give one grain of finely pulverized alum 3 times a day, upon an empty stomach in a little sugar & water till the Cough is removed which it usually is in a fortnight. | To a Child two years old give 2 grains each dose & so increasing one grain for every year but not exceeding 20 or 25 grains for each dose for an Adult. | Milk diet except in case of Infants to be avoided as much as possible & attention to be paid to the state of the bowels.' Very few clues to the author's identity. Occasional references include: 'Mrs Foot', 'Mrs. O Brien's Child 8 years', 'Dr Collins', 'Dr Reece', 'Dr Barnes' and 'Dr Greville'. Three cuttings laid down on p.43 of the first sequence: 'Remedy for the Rheumatism, Sprains, or Bruises', 'Ointment for Wounds, Sores of all kinds, and Chilblains', and 'Dr. Blake's remedy for Tooth-ache'. Tipped-in onto an endpaper a printed article relating to 'Maticò, or the Peruvian Styptic'. Note (on medicine for children, perhaps relevant): "Since pediatrics is a modern specialty, dating at best from the mid- or late nineteenth century [...]". This makes the substantial section on 'medicine for children" pioneering.