Sunday 19th September 1819
Sunday Sept 19th we remained at Inverness I did not go to church on account of Mama who was very unwell with a bad cold Mr Laury a particular friend of my father’s dined with us.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Bad Cold: Although there were medical advances in the Georgian and Regency eras, traditional medical concepts remained very much as they had in previous centuries, some dating back to Galen (129-210), the Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher who led medical advancements in the Roman Empire. The modern understanding of hygiene were not to gain acceptance until the middle/late Victorian era. Indeed, many pioneering doctors and medical philosophers found themselves lampooned in the caricatures of T Rowlandson and James Gillray.
Scientific Researches! New Discoveries in Pneumatics!or an Experimental Lecture on the Powers of the Air by James Gillray and published by Henry G. Bohn in 1849. It was originally published by H.Humphrey in 1803, probably under the title: Germans Eating Sour-Krout http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/2585
The Gillray cartoon, above, is likely to be lampooning the likes of Dr Thomas Beddoes, founder in 1799 of the Pneumatic Institution at Dowry Square, Hotwells, Bristol, who explored treating disease, especially tuberculosis, by the inhalation of various gases, which he called pneumatic medicine.
Maria Grace in Regency Life sets the scene in her article Regency Medicine: Betwixt and Between https://randombitsoffascination.com/2017/03/04/rename-a-touch-of-consumption-by-kyra-cornelius-kramer/
In In Vanessa Riley's Regency Reflections blog of 28 January 2013, http://christianregency.com/blog/2013/01/28/curing-the-cough-and-soothing-the-sniffles/ , Kristi writes: “The scientific study of medicine was just coming into existence as the Regency rolled around. Knowledge of germs and nutrition and the importance of cleanliness were mere inklings of ideas in the heads of the most advanced medical minds of the time. And these men (for they were almost exclusively men) were often scoffed at for their new ideas and practices. Because medicine was still working to organize and legitimize itself, healthcare fell on the shoulders of the people, or more specifically the women. Cookbooks of the day would contain recipes for home remedies that could be mixed or cooked to aid the ailing.Mothers would also pass down time-honored practices for various diseases, leaving people at the time with a mix of rudimentary science, folk remedy, and medieval traditions. Physicians were so rare and costly that one had to be very rich or near death to call upon one. So how did they handle the fevers and the sniffles. Without decongestants and pain relievers, they were forced to take to their beds for however long it took the body to overcome the bacteria or virus. Because many congestion related disorders were thought to be brought on by cold or damp conditions, sick rooms were often kept warm and dry, with little to no air circulation. The old axiom “Feed a cold, starve a fever” was also prescribed to, with some ailing patients being restricted to diets of bread and water in the hopes of purging the bodies of the disease. Some households would have knowledge of herbs and be able to ease the pain with concoctions of willow bark tea while others preferred to drink themselves into oblivion until the worst of the illness had passed. Other interesting treatments of the time included inducing copious amounts of sweating, stuffing orange rinds up the nose, and colonic irrigation, or cleansing of the bowels. http://christianregency.com/blog/2013/01/28/curing-the-cough-and-soothing-the-sniffles/
A Cure for the Cold from the Wellcome Foundation - Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/V0011172.jpg/full/760,/0/default.jpg
Perhaps the most through research on coughs and colds is from Katherine Allen’s Curing Coughs and the Common Cold in Eighteenth-Century England https://recipes.hypotheses.org/2723 . Katherine completed her doctorate in the history of medicine and science at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research is on elite healthcare and household medicine in eighteenth-century England, and her doctoral thesis is titled 'Manuscript Recipe Collections and Elite Domestic Medicine in Eighteenth-Century England'.
Katherine writes “In the eighteenth century catching cold was linked to climate. In his popular work Domestic Medicine (1772 edition) William Buchan explained that catching cold was a result of ‘obstructed perspiration’ and that the secret to not getting sick was avoiding extremes in temperature. Buchan observed that, ‘the inhabitants of every climate are liable to catch cold, nor can even the greatest circumspection defend them against its attacks’. For treatment Buchan advised rest, fluids, light foods, and an infusion of balm and citrus. He also cautioned that ‘Many attempt to cure a cold, by getting drunk. But this, to say no worse of it, is a very hazardous and fool-hardy experiment.’ … "Newspapers were an excellent source for cough and cold remedies; the Weekly Amusement (February 4, 1764), for instance, had a remedy ‘A Plaister for a Sore Throat’. Made from melted mutton suet, rosin, and beeswax, this paste was spread on a cloth and pinned on from ear to ear. Newspaper clippings were also pasted into manuscripts. ...Letters indicate the regularity of which remedies were exchanged, and document how individual’s expressed their cold symptoms. Mrs Gell thanked her sisters for ‘ye receipt which I believe very good in [this] time of yeare’ adding ‘thanke God & ye Drs skill & care & friends nursing am very well againe my cough is gon[e] & I am about house’. In another case, Judith Madan wrote to her daughter giving details of an illness and declared ‘My Cough is less violent and comes seldemer. As for the Phlegm which has been my torme[n]t, it must have time to subside.’
“A variety of cough and cold remedies were featured in recipe books. Alongside restorative broths (like modern chicken soup), artificial asses’ milk, and milk-based diets in general, were associated with treating coughs …. Topical therapies were also used, such as Emily Jane Sneyd eighteenth-century version of VapoRub; a mixture of sweet almond oil and syrup of violets along with a plaster of candle wax, saffron, and nutmeg applied to the stomach. Syrups and electuaries were popular remedies. One seventeenth-century recipe, ‘a most excellent electuary given to Lady Lisle by Dr Lower’, was a mixture including conserve of red roses, balsam of sulphur, oil of vitriol, and syrup of coltsfoot. Opiates were common in cough remedies, for sedation. Mrs Cotton suggested a mixture of liquorice, vinegar, salad oil, treacle, and tincture of opium when ‘the cough is troublesome’. Finally, lozenges were used to alleviate sore throats. Elizabeth Jenner’s recipe book (1706) includes her own method of making lozenges ‘very good for Coughs Comeing by takeing Cold’. Jenner’s method involved creating a stiff paste of sugar, herbal oils and powders, and rose water, rolling out the paste, punching out rounds with a thimble, and then drying them in the oven. These treatment examples reflect the variety of sources available for medical advice. As the case of the common cold demonstrates, individuals were opportunistic by collecting and trialling new remedies, while also relying on standby cures. Kith and kin were proactive in exchanging remedies and were not shy about discussing their conditions, including ‘tormenting phlegm’. But, despite an arsenal of remedies, advice for the common cold in eighteenth-century England appears strikingly similar to our current approach: stay home, rest, forego partying for a few days, and perhaps try some cough syrup."
Considering that Lucy’s mother was up and about tomorrow she would have rested up today, perhaps taken some relatively harmless syrup and would have enjoyed the luxury and comfort of Bennett’s Hotel. We learn tomorrow that she also had the benefit of Dr MacDonald, who was to breakfast with the family before the family set out from Inverness with Lucy and her mother sensibly taking it easy by going straight on to Nairn whilst the men had a more active day.
Inverness: As the family is returning on the road they came, for Inverness see our blogs for: September 4th 1819, September 5th 1819, September 6th 1819 and September 7th 1819 to review the city
Bennett’s hotel: The family remained in Inverness and would have stayed in the luxurious surroundings of the Bennett’s Hotel that they enjoyed on September 4th 1819, 5th and 6th September 1819
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?