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An Oration Possession of a Very Good Library MAY 15, 1920. the new books on science as they appeared, but even the ’new editions. He must, indeed, have been in An Oration possession of a very good library. ON There is no doubt that he prescribed for and treated his parishioners of the humbler ranks, although there THE REV. JOHN WARD AND MEDICINE. was an apothecary and at least one physician living in Stratford his He considered it a the Annual Oration the Medical during incumbency. Being of Society of of his parochial duty and the services he rendered London, delivered on May 10th, 1920, part were gratuitous. Such treatment of the poor by the BY SIR D’ARCY POWER, K.B.E., F.R.C.S. ENG., parson of the parish does not seem to have been F.S.A., unusual, for he says :- SURGEON AND LECTURER ON SURGERY, ST. BARTHOLOMEW’SHOSPITAL. " Watson, Parson of Sutton Coldfield in Staffordshire hath an extraordinarie way of cureing dropsies by ye help of pills and a dyet-drink. Hee hath likewise a kind of Unguent made, as I MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,-In a previous suppose, of Tarre and ye basting of a shoulder of mutton and of I some account of the Rev. John soot (as they tell mee) or some such thing and this cures any sore address gave Ward, " A.M., vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, whose commonplace presently." This was a crude form of Picis. books have long been amongst our treasured possessions. clearly Unguentum From time to he did a little minor I propose to-day to consider his medical knowledge- time, too, surgery, and he has a a .as he reveals himself to us-in somewhat greater detail. good surgical aphorism : "Allways lay Even in his when he was a resident Master wound open whether it bee fresh or ulcerated." He says:— early days, " ,of Arts at Christ Church, Oxford, he had a strong bias Remember to get a speculum oris and other instruments fit for chirurgerie when I goe to London and a great case to hold them." towards " natural science," as we should now call it- There is a note :- a bias which was strengthened by the original work of and " Issues made in children’s necks att 2 days old, good against Willis, Lower, Wren, Bathurst, Boyle, Hooke, convulsion fitts. Remember to cut ym with my owne hand and whose names are household words to the modern frequently to let blood with my owne hand. In making Issues student of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and physics. use a green pea to draw, Ivie peas made of Gentian Roots; peas At the when those who had become made of Hermodactyl as I have heard." " Remember in Agues Restoration, and ffeavors 1st. to bleed and then to giue my powder and inured to the rule of the Commonwealth found them- plaisters to break ye neck of ye disease afterwards." selves somewhat out of harmony with the Royalists, He was observant of cases as they came under his Ward, like many others, determined to leave Oxford, notice and seems to have had some idea of the and, having a competence, debated for some time metastasis of cancer, for he writes:- whether a or a he should become divine physician. He "Persons yt haue Cancers after a while haue glandules arising visited London repeatedly in the year 1661-1662, and in other parts, wch may infect further, although ye other should be attended the lectures of Sir Charles Scarborough at the taken out." Barber Surgeons’ Hall in Monkwell-street ; visited St. CONTEMPORARY METHODS OF TREATMENT. Thomas’s and St. Bartholomew’s and made Hospitals, The contemporary methods of treatment can be inquiries about the cost of foreign medical degrees. gathered from various entries. Thus, of pleurisy with Botany2 and chemistry as the foundations of medicine effusion, Ward writes :- interested but the call of the Church " greatly him, When an incision is to be made into ye Breast open itt betwixt prevailed. He bought himself the .Vicarage of Strat- ye 3rd. and 4th. true ribb reckoning upwards, yt is just aboue ye ford-on-Avon, and remained there till his death in 1681. diaphragm and to yt purpose apply a Caustick wch is very strong eat an The bodies of his as well as and will through ye Muscle; yn make Incision and keep itt parishioners-dead living- open with Tents. This course was taken with one who had an and especially their urines, interested him much more hydrops pectoris and itt evacuated much water but at last itt than their spiritual state, and where one page of his ulcerated and ye man died." " A Caustick if well made in two hours does buisnes." "That had a with is devoted to texts, sermons, and there ye person yt hydrops pectoris diary theology, laying one hand uppon his breasts and another upon his back and are 20 dealing with medical topics. Like many medical shaking him, ye water swashed so about yt those that were by students of the present day he loved a prescription, and heard it plainly." he eagerly noted down the formulae which he had heard The treatment of lunatics was drastic. " or seen used by an eminent physician. Willis was A good course for mad people (is) to bleed att both armes and facile princeps in his estimation, partly because Ward att both feet and yn att ye haemorrhoids by Leeches ; yn att ye Veine of forehead and and nose and att had known him at because Willis was ye tongue ye temporal Oxford, partly artery. Extract of Hellibor gr. x. once in 4 or 5 days very good just acquiring a good practice and was called into con- for madness proceeding from melancholia. Many mad persons sultation in the more serious cases which occurred not cured till 60 times bleeding." amongst Ward’s parishioners and neighbours. Hysteria seems to have been a common and trouble- Ward himself was like Boyle and Pepys, versatile and some condition then as now. Dr. Willis and Dr. curious, a type of mind not uncommon amongst men of Highmore both wrote on the subject and Ward makes his generation. He wished to know all that could be repeated reference to them. The cause was none the known about everything he saw. If he went to a less mysterious because it was supposed to bear a goldbeater’s shop he desired to know exactly the pro- relation to " the rising of the mother," the deeply cesses used and the weight and thickness of the pro- ingrained idea that the uterus was an animal with an ducts ; the pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone interested independent existence and capable of independent move- him greatly, not because he had any belief in the ment in the body. Ward says of the cause of hysteria- transmutation of metals, but because it led to chemical "Enquire whether histerical fitts may not be caused by ye an which is beloved and likewise from processes and was in the nature of wombe rising uppon object experimentation. wind; so ye erection of ye yard may proceed from a wind dis- In this respect he was a true disciple of Boyle-the tending itt, wch wee call a satyriasis. Histerical fits are of seueral author of the Sceptical Chemist-for all things were put kinds some voluntarie as in (1) erect; virg; (2) some proceeding some of either to the test of " Don’t think, was from wind; (3) from ye suffering ye matrix, by experiment. try," emptying of a great Burden as after child-bearing or by doing itt the watchword of the Oxford School of Science long wrong in wounding itt in bringing forth ye child; (4) or by fumes before it was adopted by John Hunter, and in this elevated; remember to peruse Dr. Highmore on this subject." school Ward was educated. Fortunately for us he had Highmore, a friend of Harvey, is still known to us by a bad memory and therefore committed his thoughts to the antrum of Highmore. He wrote a small 12mo. paper; we are thus enabled to follow their train. In published at Oxford in 1660, with the title " Exercita- the long winter evenings he read much, and it was his duae ...... De Passione Hysterica." Ward tiones " habit to make a digest or running commentary upon evidently looked at the book, for on page 4 is Sternu- what he read. Riverius, Fuller’s Worthies of England, tatio si superveniat cito paroxysmum claudit," and a Velthusius, Willis’s De Cerebri Anatome, Lower, Boyle few pages further on Ward asks himself- in all his works, and Highmore were his constant " Whether itt is not very proper to cause histerical women to companions, and the under con- sneeze by putting up Orange pill [peel] into their noses or some throughout period other way." sideration-1660 to 1668-he must have given a standing order to his bookseller in Oxford to send him, not only There was also- " Aq. Histeric. and Cinnamomi for women in laboure or neei 1 THE LANCET, 1916, ii., 665. fainting fits. Whether fits of ye Mother are anything else besids 2 The Annals of Medical History, vol. ii., 1919, p. 109. a meer ventositie of ye wombe."" No. 5046 U 1044 The treatment differed with different practitioners; e plague; yt hee opened one yt had no tokens nor sores, yet was full of tokens about ye Breasts. When ye Tokens only appear thus- uid not a Bubo itt is less infectious." "The Plague ordinarily "Dr. Trig cured a woman yt was troubled with histerical fitts begins with vomiting; There are in itt Buboes yt appear in ye this way; he laid her uppon ye ground with her face downwards yn Emunctories: Carbuncles wch come anywhere ; ye Blanes wch are took up her coat and gaue her 3 or 4 good slaps on ye arse and they ihings like blisters; and ye tokens wch are spots of bright iftaming cured but I was informed yt he did this red colour: inquire of Dr.
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