Items

Title: A collection of choise receipts : manuscript, circa 1680-1700
Description: Late 17th-centrury English manuscript divided into two parts: "A Collection of Choise Receipts" and "A Book of Physical Receipts." The first part of the manuscript contains approximately 390 recipes on 254 numbered pages. Of the recipes in the first part approximately 204 are culinary and approximately 175 are for medicines, perfumes, sweet bags, cosmetics, and household cleaners. A large portion of the culinary recipes concern banqueting, particularly fruit preserving; wines, liqueurs, non-medicinal waters, and syrups; and cakes and biscuits. Dinner and supper recipes, such as puddings, meat, poultry, and fish, are also well represented. The second part contains approximately 781 medicinal recipes on 214 numbered pages. Various diseases and conditions such as ague, bleeding, consumption, colic, dropsy, fits, fever, plague, pox, and stone are mentioned. Both parts are followed by indexes. The entire manuscript is written in one very legible hand, possibly that of a professional scribe. The characters "J H" appear frequently in the first part of the manuscript. Many of the recipes are attributed, some to nobility.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English -- Early works to 1800, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title

An Abstract of the Patent Granted by His Majesty King George…

Description

Patent medicines originated in England in the mid 17th century and were marketed with extravagant claims, offering cures for a host of maladies. Recommendations for dosage were vague, and ingredients (often including opium) were usually not specified. In 1726 Benjamin Okell was granted the royal patent for Dr. Bateman’s Pectoral Drops, a tincture of gambir (an astringent extract from an Asian plant) and opium. Advertisements published in the London Mercury as early as 1721 directed prospective customers to the warehouse and printing shop at Bow's Churchyard, where they could purchase the drops for one shilling. Our copy of the 1731 reprint by Peter Zenger is likely the first piece of medical printing in New York. Zenger, who would later become famous for printing seditious texts, was instrumental in establishing freedom of the press in America. The Academy has the only known copy. Bound with our copy of the abstract is a copy of A Short treatise of the virtues of Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, also issued by Okell and his printing house partners. Here, Batemans efficacy as a treatment for numerous ailments are described in sections dedicated to each. The last section of the treatise offers testimonials from satisfied customers.

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Subjects (LC)

Advertising—Medicine, Early works to 1800, Fever, Medicine, Patent medicines, Rheumatism

Title

Apicius [De re culinaria Libri I-IX]

Description

This manuscript contains 500 Greek and Roman recipes from the fourth and fifth century, both culinary and medical, reflecting the polyglot culture of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes referred to as the oldest extant cookbook in the West, the manuscript is divided into ten books. It is likely that the Apicius began as a Greek collection, mainly written in Latin, and adapted for a Roman palate. The collection is likely compiled from many sources, as no evidence exists that Apicius (a Roman gourmet in 1st century AD), authored a book of cookery. Our manuscript was penned in several hands in a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian scripts at the monastery at Fulda (Germany) around 830 AD. It is one of two manuscripts (the other at the Vatican) presumed to have been copied from a now lost common source. The Apicius manuscript is the gem of the Academy’s Margaret Barclay Wilson Collection of cookery, acquired in 1929.

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Subjects (LC)

Cookbooks, Cooking, Latin peoples, Cooking, Mediterranean, Cooking, Roman, Early works to 1800, Manuscripts, Medicine

Title: Approved receipts in physick : manuscript, circa 1650-1700
Description: Manuscript recipe book consisting of mostly medical formulas, as well as some culinary recipes and a few alchemical preparations. Predominately in two unidentified hands. There are approximately 480 medical recipes (467 numbered) and 21 culinary recipes. Includes remedies for sores, burns, wounds, ailments of the eyes, complexion, "greene sickness," colds, coughs, and more. Most of the recipes are unattributed, but there are a few exceptions, including a receipt for "Sr Walter Rawley's great cordiall". Culinary recipes include syrups, wines, meats, pickles, preserves, and waffles. The book was probably compiled in the second half of the 17th century.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions -- Early works to 1800, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Cooking, English, Manuscripts, English -- 17th century

Title

Aristotle’s Masterpiece, Or The Secrets of Generation displayed in all the parts thereof

Description

Published initially in 1684 and popular in both America and England for over two hundred years, this became the most widely reprinted medical book in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The contributions of the Masterpiece were not particularly scientific, but drew largely from Hippocrates, and Galen, as well as other classical and medieval writers. The source material came from two earlier books: Levinus Lemnius’s Secret Miracles of Nature, originally published in Latin in 1599, and The Complete Midwives Practice Enlarged (author unknown). Chapter headings include sections titled, “The Signs of Barrenness” “The Way of getting to a Boy or a Girl,” “How a Midwife Ought to be Qualified” and “A Word of Advice to both Sexes in the Act of Copulation.” The information this title offered on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth wasn’t particularly innovative; many seventeenth century discoveries in gynecology are absent from the text and replaced by Hippocratic pathology, or by superstition. The “Aristotle” of the title was pseudonymous, and likely evoked by the book’s author to give the tome scientific credibility. The book’s true author is unknown, though Culpepper and William Salmon, an English physician and author, are sometimes credited.

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Subjects (LC)

Abnormalities, Human, Conception, Early works to 1800, Gynecology, Medicine, Midwifery, Obstetrics, Reproduction, Sex instruction, Sexual behavior

Title: Au Régiment Spécifique Victorieux: La corvée de quartier
Description: Trade card advertising Victorieux featuring an image of five men in white uniforms cleaning the street. They are sweeping and shoveling horse refuse and carting it away in a wheelbarrow. Soldiers (including one playing a trumpet), a horse, and buildings are visible in the background. The back mentions the French army's use of the Victorieux.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Brooms And Brushes, Carts And Carriages, Hats, Housing, Men, Men's Hats, Musical Instruments, Refuse And Refuse Disposal, Shovels, Street Cleaning, Streets, Trees, Trumpet
ID: WH372
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Ayer's Ague Cure Is Warranted to Cure All Malarial Disorders
Description: Trade card advertising Ayer's Ague Cure featuring a landscape image of a tropical place containing trees and foliage, a log cabin, two people and a heron-looking bird on the shore, and a person in a row boat. In the bottom right is a magnified view of an alligator or crocodile seemingly conversing with two frogs, one of which is holding a bottle and the other one of which is leaning on a box with the writing Ayer's Ague Cure on it. The back has an image of a bottle labeled Ayer's Ague Cure that is upright on a lilly pad with a frog standing on its back legs while touching the bottle with its front legs. The text lists the ailments Ayer's Ague Cure treats.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Fever, Malaria, Typhoid Fever
Subjects (LC): Acquatic Reptiles, Advertising—Medicine, Alligators, Amphibians, Animals—Caricatures And Cartoons, Aquatic Animals, Birds, Boats And Boating, Bog Animals, Bottles, Crocodiles, Frogs, Herons, Jungles, Log Cabins, Nature, Swamps, Trees
ID: WH124
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Ayer's Cathartic Pills, a safe, pleasant and reliable Family Medicine
Description: Trade card advertising Ayer's Cathartic Pills featuring seven cherubic, naked babies handling oversized pill boxes and such with the words Ayer's Pills on them. Some babies are wrapping the items, some are pasting labels onto them, and some are filling them with pills. The back has an image of a bottle with name of the manufacturer on it: J.C. Ayer and lists what ailments Ayer's Cathartic Pills cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Dizziness, Headache, Indigestion, Jaundice
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Babies
ID: WH121
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Ayer's Cathartic Pills, a safe, pleasant and reliable Family Medicine
Description: Trade card advertising Ayer's Cathartic Pills featuring seven cherubic, naked babies handling oversized pill boxes and such with the words Ayer's Pills on them. Some babies are wrapping the items, some are pasting labels onto them, and some are filling them with pills. The back has an image of a bottle with name of the manufacturer on it: J.C. Ayer and lists what ailments Ayer's Cathartic Pills cure.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Dizziness, Headache, Indigestion, Jaundice
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Babies
ID: WH122
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Brown's Iron Bitters the Best Tonic Cures Malaria, Dyspepsia & Female Infirmities
Description: Trade card advertising Brown's Iron Bitters featuring a framed portrait of a woman's head. The glass of the frame is broken, revealing the woman's nose and mouth. She has brown hair that is in an updo and is wearing a brown dress and gold, hooped earrings. The back describes the disease malaria and how the Iron Bitters can help cure it.
Conditions Cured (LC): Indigestion, Malaria
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Bows, Earrings, Glass, Gold Jewelry, Hair Ornaments, Picture Frames And Framing, Portrait Frames, Portraits, Ribbons, Women
ID: WH238
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Buy it, Try it, and be Happy! Morse's Dyspepsia Cure, Holliston, Mass.
Description: Trade card advertising Morse's Dyspepsia Cure featuring an image of a lighthouse and a sailing ship in choppy waters. Text at bottom reads "Eddy Stone Light House." The back lists ailments that Morse's Dyspepsia Cure helps.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation, Headache, Heartburn, Indigestion, Palpitation
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Boats And Boating, Lighthouses, Sailboats, Sailing Ships, Water Waves
ID: WH177
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Cas-car-ria is made by a distinguished chemist [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Cas-car-ria featuring a young girl and a dog chasing devil-esque creatures, labeled as various ailments, into a body of water. The girl is wearing a bright pink dress and holds a switch in her hand. The dog is large and brown and white. The back quotes a piece by Lord Roscommon.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Children, Cliffs, Demonology, Devil, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Staffs (Sticks, Canes, Etc.), Trees, Water
ID: WH244
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Cas-car-ria is worth its weight in gold [from verso]
Description: Trade card advertising Cas-car-ria featuring a young girl and a dog chasing devil-esque creatures, labeled as various ailments, into a body of water. The girl is wearing a bright pink dress and holds a switch in her hand. The dog is large and brown and white. The back quotes a piece by Izaak Walton.
Conditions Cured (LC): Asthenia, Rheumatism
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Children, Cliffs, Demonology, Devil, Dogs, Folklore, Grasslands, Mythology, Staffs (Sticks, Canes, Etc.), Trees, Water
ID: WH245
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Cookbook : manuscript, circa 1700s and 180
Description: Manuscript containing mostly culinary recipes from the 18th and 19th centuries. The bulk of the recipes are from the early 18th century and written in two hands. Most concern fruit preserving (23 recipes) and fruit and flower wines (10 recipes). Other early 18th-century recipes include little cakes, stewed dishes, fried pasties, pickles and souses, a collar of beef, potted beef, other meat dishes, and a few medicinal receipts. Three later recipes are also found; one is from the late 18th century or later, and the other two are copied from Eliza Acton's Modern Cooking for Private Families, published in 1846.
Subjects (LC): Cooking, English, Medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Traditional medicine -- Formulae, receipts, prescriptions, Manuscripts, English -- 18th century, Manuscripts, English -- 19th century

Title

De symmetria partium in rectis formis humanorum

Description

Albrecht Dürer, printmaker and painter of the German Renaissance, was equally famous during his lifetime for contributions to the study of mathematics and proportion. In this text, Dürer treats the arithmetic and geometrical constructions of bodies, largely at rest. Numerous woodcuts represent bodies male and female in various sizes and ages, and register their measurements. The ideas expressed in the De symmetria and the two complimentary volumes that followed, also on human proportion, were widely influential on artists and anatomists for centuries to come. This 1532 text in Latin contains the first two books of the results of this research, first published in German in 1528 as Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion (Four Books on Human Proportion.) Dürer died shortly after receiving the first proofs of the German edition; the remaining publication details were completed by his friends. Our copy is bound in stamped pigskin, with a front panel illustrating Jacob’s ladder and a back panel depicting the baptism of Christ. The woodcut monogram Dürer developed in 1497 to protect his work from piracy is visible on the title page.

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Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Artistic, Anthropometry, Early works to 1800, Human figure in art, Medical illustration, Medicine, Proportion (Anthropometry), Proportion (Art), Wood-engraving—16th century

Title

Des aller furtrefflichsten, hoechsten und adelichsten Gschoepffs aller Creaturen

Description

Walther Hermann Ryff was a surgeon employed in Strassburg in the early 16th Century. One of the highlights of this text are the 42 hand-colored woodcuts in the text, compiled from a number of Renaissance sources. Depicted in the counterfeit style, the illustrations in this book would have implied eye witness knowledge and discovery. In this way, Ryff’s book asserted itself as a credible description of anatomy (though its illustrations were far from anatomically accurate). The text of this book relied on lectures in anatomy and physiology, compounded from other sources. His audience was the ‘gemeine,’ or common man, and its composition in German, rather than Latin, ensured it would have a wider audience. In this way, Ryff’s book would have been indispensable to new readers as a compilation of Renaissance knowledge about the body. The book also offers evidence about early printing history. The wood-blocks for this edition were reused for a set of broadsides before they were passed to a Parisian printer for new editions of Ryff’s work, and for a popular work on surgery. This illustrated the practice of passing wood-blocks from publisher to publisher, and shows how work published in one city continued to be published and disseminated in others

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Subjects (LC)

Anatomy, Anthropometry, Early works to 1800, Medical illustration, Medicine, Printing—History, Proportion (Art), Renaissance, Wood-engraving

Title: Dr. Mettaur's Headache Pills
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Mettaur's Headache Pills featuring a young girl who seems to be praying on a bed. She is barefoot and wearing a nightgown. There is a pillow by her knees. The back has testimony from satisfied customers.
Conditions Cured (LC): Headache
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Children, Children—Prayers And Devotions, Pillows, Portraits
ID: WH303
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Dr. Morse's Compound Syrup of Yellow Dock Root Regulating the Liver and Digestive Organs and Purifying the Blood
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Morse's Compound Syrup of Yellow Dock Root featuring a tree populated by various animals. At its base is a bull. There are two quadruped animals in its branches. An owl perches on the frame of the advertisement text. In the background is a body of water with birds flying over it.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Birds, Bulls, Nature, Owls, Trees, Water
ID: WH387F
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Dr. Morse's Compound Syrup of Yellow Dock Root the Blood Purifier Cures Constipation and Biliousness: The Great Kidney Remedy
Description: Trade card advertising Dr. Morse's Compound Syrup of Yellow Dock Root featuring a young boy peering into a jeweled, egg-shaped, over-sized box. His dress resembles a formal military officer's.
Conditions Cured (LC): Biliary Tract—Diseases, Constipation
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Children, Children's Clothing, Costume, Dress And Clothing
ID: WH173
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

Title: Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills
Description: Trade card advertising Morse's Indian Root Pills featuring a toddler crawling on the floor towards a collie. Behind the two is a cat peeking through a door at them from another room. The back has text explaining the benefits of Morse's Indian Root Pills.
Subjects (LC): Advertising—Medicine, Animals, Babies, Cats, Dogs, Domestic Space, Infants
ID: WH308
Collection: William H. Helfand Collection of Pharmaceutical Trade Cards

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