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[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].
[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].

[18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].

Based in part on his father’s, Dr. Cornelius Osborn’s 1768 MS.; includes several remedies or treatments attributed to specific physician authorities


Primitive handwritten 18th century Hudson Valley, New York medical formulary presenting detailed treatments and botanic recipes for cures and elixirs for a variety of medical conditions.

The manuscript appears to have been created by Dr. James Osborn, son of Anglo-Dutch physician Dr. Cornelius Osborn (1722–1782) of Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York. His likely autograph signature appears on p23 of the manuscript: “Doct James Osborn.”

In 1768, James’ father, Dr. Cornelius Osborn, compiled his own medical formulary or vade mecum which he dedicated to his eldest son James. Cornelius’ manuscript is held by the Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Dr. James Osborn, in turn, copied out the recipes and treatments from his father’s manuscript and created his own formulary, adding a few additional formulas or treatments, many referencing noted medical authorities.

Cornelius was an important landowner, beer brewer, and physician in Dutchess County. He may not have received a formal medical education, so it is likely he apprenticed in or near Dutchess County in the 1730s–1740s. It appears too, that in his early medical career he worked along side one of the earliest New York Jewish physicians, Dr. Isaac Marks.

Later, Cornelius served as a field surgeon during the Revolutionary War. His medical training included both traditional academic European medicine as well as local New York botanic preparations and treatments which he passed on to his son and which seen in the present manuscript.

Ailments or conditions considered in the present manuscript include fevers, epilepsy, venereal disease, consumption (tuberculosis), dropsy (edema), jaundice, “hystericks,” St. Anthony’s Fire, “For Lying in woman or Delivery,” etc. Recommended recipes and elixers include several attributed to specific physician authorities; a few are attributable to Dr. Cornelius Osborn.

Physician authorities mentioned by name here and their recipes include “Doctor Wealers [Wheeler?] Emplaster”; “Doct. Porters ung[en]t for stretching sinews”; Doct Blar [Blair?] ungt for ye itch he was surgin [sic] to ye royal hospital; “Doctor [Daniel] Turners serot for burns or Drying wounds”; “Docter Dunbar surgeon in ye hospital Rx for ye itch”; “For making Dr. Nichols Bals. for the Canker sore”; “A Bals. of honey from Dr D. Lavarge”; and “Rx For Dr. [Robert] James Powders”.

Other personal references include “Look at Theobald Pharmacopia” and “Look to [Dr. Samuel] Sharps surgery”. To his father’s recipe for treating St. Anthony’s Fire (Erysipelas), James adds the names of three authorities: “Look to Boorhave [Dr. Hermann Boerhaave] [Dr. Samuel] Sharp or [Dr. Daniel] Turner.”

There are a couple of references in James’ manuscript to his father’s 1768 manuscript formulary, still written in the first person. In the section “For Lying in woman or Delivery” (p51), James copies out a passage from father’s earlier formulary:

...these are the Chiefest I use to make use of and as the intention of this small pamphlet is only to give a small sketch of Disorders and the most approved remidies [sic] I shall Drop speaking on this head as these Chiefest Difficulty women are troubled with.

Another reference to his father’s manuscript describes the making of a barley beer to treat consumption. After listing all the ingredients, Cornelius wrote and James here copies:

...this is one of the best Drinks that ever I found in old lingering Disorder of the hectic kind in a bear [beer] or barley water.” (p31)

Dr. James Osborn’s receipt or recipe “For the Hystericks” (p16), a condition usually diagnosed for female patients, differs from his father’s recipe. James first describes the condition, something his father did not deem useful to mention, and then he intriguingly hints at some already prepared, generic medical or botanic treatments:

When they will have a choaking as if their was a Crust of bread in throat and a beating of the heart with a fainting and febleness in the Limbs give if they complain of a Chilings like and ague and no sleep give No. 4 after that if they should be Costive give Pil in No. 2 after that you may Give by themselves or mix No. 5 and No. 6 or No. 8 which is in many Cases best the galbanum Plaster takes plase.

There is no references in the manuscript to what these “numbers” refer. Perhaps these pills or preparations were becoming more standardized in his treatment regimens?

Among the herbal or unusual ingredients used in the cures are “the blood of a Cat”; Solomon’s seal; “Cumphrey”; “green tobacco juse”; catnip; honey; “spare mint”; “good west india rum”; “Borax in powder”; “Pond lily roots”; “Tormintil unicorn radix”; Selerian; “Angle worm Clens’d in wine”; “Ducks meat”; powder hemp seed; “The Blood of a stalion”; “holihawk roots” [hollyhock]; and “Rattle snake in powder”.

For rheumatoid issues: green tobacco juice with hogs lard and “scunk greese” could help the pained body part. (p7)

Another mixture for the above ailment: horse radish root, garlic, mustard seed; all mixed with a quart of rum. (p45)

For “Convultion Fits” the “...blood of a stallion” mixed with sage in an earthen pot could be put in an oven with bread (“...or make your oven as hot as you would for bread”) and a powder made from the results. (p18)

Purges could involve using aloe, hemp seed and turpentine with the importance of the body bring in a “Relaxt state” or regular state deemed important.

Dr. James Osborn’s botanic medical manuscript is an important record of 18th century American medical practice and its transmission to a physician of a new generation. American medical manuscripts surviving from this time period are of great rarity.


Description: [18th Century Hudson Valley, New York Medical Formulary Manuscript Notebook Kept by Dr. James Osborn].

[Likely Dutchess County, New York; 18th century, after 1768]. [53]pp. Manuscript Notebook. 8 x 6¼ inches. Flexible, paper-lined sheep or pigskin[?] covers; crudely stitched. Manuscript comprised of three gatherings, the third being sewn together and stitched in separately, partly loosening. Several, very discrete modern blindstamps of “Lindmark’s Book Shop Poughkeepsie, New York”. Likely autograph signature on p23 of “Doct James Osborn.” Manuscript index inside rear pastedown. Some wear to covers and corners of some leaves; lacking one leaf, possibly blank; some toning; overall, very good and legible.

[3726471]

Refs. Four Generations: from Herbalism to Medical Botany | Brian Altonen, MPH, MS; Dr. Cornelius Osborn (1722-1782) | Brian Altonen, MPH, MS; and The Manuscript or Vade Mecum [pp#] | Brian Altonen, MPH, MS; all accesed online.


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