Gout

[ Gout ] Henry Nase

Contributors
Contributor Role
Compiler
Contributor Name
Henry Nase

Date: The recipes appear between the diary entries for 19 December 1785 and 22 March 1786. | 1785/12/19 to 1786/03/22

Publication Format
Manuscript

Type
Medicine

Symptoms
gout

Ingredients
speedwell
alder bark
winter's bark
angelica root
fennel bark
water
sugar
honey
Dr.  Huxham’s essense of Antimony

Places
New Brunswick

Source: Diary of Henry Nase
Institution: New Brunswick Museum Archives and Research Library | Source Origin: Nase Family Papers | Sublocation: Diary of Henry Nase | Reference: S 116-2 - F 4

Description

This recipe appears on page 97. Image courtesy of New Brunswick Museum Archives and Research Library.


Images
Transcription

Gout

Four ounces leaves of speedwell  Two ounces alder

Bark -- 3do wintris bark  ½ pd angelica root

4 ounces Fennel Bark boil these together in 2 gal[ons] of

soft water, strain the decoction in a earthen Pan, let

it stand all night to settle. Pour it off in the morning

 

and disolve 3.tb treble refined sugar; Two p.d virgin

honey – gently simmered into a thin syrup – a larger

teacup full, night & morning – to each dose or time of

taking, a teaspoonful of Dr. Huxham’s essense of antimony

Annotations
"The pungent aromatic bark of a South American evergreen shrub or small tree, Drimys winteri" according to the OED. The 1747 British Dispensatory, however, specifies Canella alba or "white Cinnamon" as a medicinal ingredient, noting that it is "improperly called winter's bark" (5).
John Huxham published Medical and Chemical Observations about Antimony in 1756. R. Brookes' The General Practice of Physic (1754) indicates that Huxham preferred for the treatment of rheumatic pains the essence of antimony, "which is nothing else but emetic Wine made with Glass of Antimony, with the Addition of a little spicy Stomachic" (61).
The root of the angelica archangelica plant used to treat a variety of afflictions.