{"id":65,"date":"2014-11-17T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T11:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/?p=65"},"modified":"2014-11-17T11:41:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T11:41:10","slug":"medicine-cures-and-quacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/2014\/11\/17\/medicine-cures-and-quacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine, Cures and Quacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"cook<\/a>

LM, V (1774). Image \u00a9 Adam Matthew Digital \/ Birmingham Central Library. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

Among the many interesting reader contributions to the Lady<\/em>\u2019s Magazine <\/em>are the items that seek or offer advice on medical issues. One of the periodical\u2019s major sources of medical expertise was Dr John Cook, who began corresponding with the magazine in September 1774. Dr Cook, a 70 year-old physician confined to a wheelchair by gout, seeks to be \u2018useful to the last\u2019 by sending in medical pieces to a variety of periodicals.\u00a0Eighteenth-century patients, overwhelmed with recipes for \u2018vulgar specificks\u2019 made up of \u2018cat\u2019s-blood, powder of the human skull, and many other such mysterial medicines\u2019 of \u2018imagined virtues\u2019 (V, 464), could consult the magazine\u2019s long-running column The Lady\u2019s Physician\u00a0<\/em>for professional medical guidance.<\/p>\n

\"pitch<\/a>

LM, VIII (1777). Image \u00a9 Adam Matthew Digital \/ Birmingham Central Library. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

To a modern reader, Dr Cook\u2019s advice can appear to border on the downright dangerous. At one point he suggests that mothers who are having a particularly difficult time curing their infants\u2019 scabbed head use a plaster of black pitch (a tar-like substance) to coat the head and pull the hairs out by the roots (VIII, 41). Nonetheless, the medical advice on offer was seldom without precedent. Running from 1774-1786, with Dr William Turnbull taking over from Dr Cook in November 1783, The<\/em> Lady\u2019s Physician <\/em>provided cures believed to be tried and true \u2013 though often with modifications. Dr Boerhaave\u2019s recipe for a poultice to apply to breasts infected with coagulated milk, was, for example, offered by Cook along with his own explicit directions, measurements and comforting tone (VI, 256). For those ladies whose breasts are so infected they require suppuration, Cook assures them that they \u2018need not be terrified at so slight an operation\u2019 that is not \u2018cutting into the solid flesh, as you may fear, but only piercing at once a very thin and overstretched skin \u2026 if speedily performed, both the horror and pain will be over before can well be cried oh!\u2019 (VI, 257).<\/p>\n

\"mole<\/a>

LM, IV (1773). Image \u00a9 Adam Matthew Digital \/ Birmingham Central Library. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

Not all who wrote to the magazine offering advice were as professional as Cook. In response to Sylviana, who requested a cure for the \u2018disagreeable\u2019 warts that have \u2018over-grown\u2019 her hands (IV, 600), one reader suggested she slaughter a mole and bathe her warts in its blood (IV, 660).\u00a0For readers like Sylviana, whose warts caused her mortification, the dialogue provided by the magazine\u2019s reader contribution and response format allowed for questions and conversations that would have otherwise gone unasked and unspoken. Serials such as The<\/em> Lady\u2019s Physicican<\/em> in some ways functioned as an eighteenth-century Embarrassing Bodies<\/em>, but without the need for self-exposure. Cook himself expressed a desire that the column would help women with diseases \u2018the modesty of many will not permit them to consult a physician about\u2019 (V, 578).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

LM, IV (1773). Image \u00a9 Adam Matthew Digital \/ Birmingham Central Library. Not to be reproduced without permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

And as for quacks?\u00a0In addition to those against whom Dr. Cook warned readers, a more traditional type of quack appears. In 1773 Clarinda writes in with medical recipes\u00a0to treat diseases in birds, poultry and water-fowl, particularly distemper in Guinea fowl (IV, 239).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Jenny DiPlacidi<\/strong><\/p>\n

School of\u00a0English, University of Kent<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the many interesting reader contributions to the Lady\u2019s Magazine are the items that seek or offer advice on medical issues. One of the periodical\u2019s major sources of medical expertise was Dr John Cook, who began corresponding with the magazine in September 1774. Dr Cook, a 70 year-old physician confined to a wheelchair by gout, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39798,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[569],"tags":[136227,136229,136231,136226,136230,45939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39798"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ladys-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}