"A Simple and Effectual Remedy" for St. Anthony's Fire and Whooping Cough in the Late Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The documents presented here are “receipts,” or recipes, that were recorded by Henry Bromfield of Massachusetts in his memoranda book in the 1790s. Bromfield came from a wealthy family of merchants based in Boston and London. He was most remarkable, perhaps, for his longevity: born in 1727 in Boston, he was 92 when he died in 1820. After Henry's death, his son wrote that his father had enjoyed excellent health until the last month of his life. He had outlived two wives (the first died of smallpox) and four of his six children, and had spent the last 35 years of his life in some isolation on a farm in Harvard, Massachusetts. Bromfield relinquished the business to the younger generation, but maintained a lively correspondence and read extensively. In his small memoranda book, Bromfield recorded an eclectic range of information. He seems to have begun adding notes to the...