A Receipt for a Cold

[ A Receipt for a Cold ] Doctor James

Contributors
Contributor Role
Author
Contributor Name
Doctor James
Contributor Role
Compiler
Contributor Name
William Trueman

Date: The early date on the manuscript is 1755. William Trueman died in 1797. | 1755/01/01 to 1797/12/31

Publication Format
Manuscript

Type
Medicine

Symptoms
cold
cough

Ingredients
linseed
licorice
raisins
sun raisins
water
soft water
sugar
brown sugar candy
vinegar
white wine vinegar
lemon juice

Places
London
England
New Brunswick

Source: Trueman Family Scrapbook
Institution: Mount Allison University Archives | Source Origin: Trueman Family Fonds | Sublocation: 3. Scrapbook containing Trueman Family Papers, 1755-1851. | Reference: Accession 0102

Description

A popular remedy for treating colds and coughs deemed by its author "infallible." The remedy appears to be in the hand of William Trueman (1720-1797) and is on page 16. Image courtesy of Mount Allison University Archives.

Though the origins of the Trueman version are unclear, slightly different instructions appear as "Recipe for a Cold, which is Most Strenuously Recommended," which includes rum (The European Magazine, and London Review, Vol 2. [London, 1817], p.199), as "Cure for Colds," which omits rum and names flax for linseed (The British American Cultivator, Vol. 2 [Toronto: Eastwood, 1846], p. 187), and as "A Cure for a Cold," which specifies "arctic" rather than "stick" licorice and identifies the Saturday Evening Post as the source (The Gospel Advocate and Impartial Investigator, Vol. 6 [Auburn NY: Doubleday, 1828], p. 127). 


Images
Transcription

Receipt for a Cold by the
Late Doct James of London

Take a large teaspoonfull
of linsed, with tow penneworth
of stick li[qu]orice and a Quarter of
a pound of Raisons of sun, put them
into tow Quarts of soft water and
let it simmer over a slow fire
till it be reduced to one, then ad
to it a quarter of a pound of Brown
Sugar candy pounded, a table 
spoonfull of white wine vinegar
or lemon juse, Note, the vinegar
is Best to be added only to that
Quantity you are going immediat-
-ly to take, for if it is put into the
whole it is apt in a little time to
grow flat Drink half a pint at go
ing to bed, and take a little when
the cough is troublesome. This
recipt generaly cures the worst of
Colds in tow or three days. and if
taken in time may be said to be
almost an infallible remedy.
it is a sovereign balsamic cordial
for the lungs. with out the open
ing Qualities which endanger fresh cold
on going out it has been known
to cure colds that have almost
been Settled into consumptions
in less than three weeaks