Brandon Boozer
Professor Coronado
12/09/14
ENGL 226
Thomas Jessop’s
Book of Diseases
American history is a melting pot holding a mixture of
classic works of art that expand through various scholarly disciplines.
Politics, economics, geography, and more share a connection in literature
through various authors such as Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, and
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The list goes on. What some may often overlook over the
course of American history is the practice of medicine and how doctors
researched and practiced their treatments. In a small cloth-bound journal that
belonged to Thomas Jessop entitled “Book of Diseases with Medicines Proper for
Each,” there lies an alphabetized series of entries of various medical
conditions, most of which are described in detail with various treatments, all
in relation to the time period. Additionally accompanying several entries are
newspaper cutouts that give recommendations for treatments and cures. Some may
wonder what this has to do with other authors like Jefferson or Thoreau. This
journal, while it may not hold the same historical importance as Jefferson’s
literature, provides a first-hand account of medicinal practices that are also
in connection with newspapers and journalism, which is in itself a big part of
literature and American history. The contents of this journal gives us an idea
of how the practice of medicine really was around this time period and also
provides a sense of accomplishment in how far the scientific community has come
in the past two hundred years.
Thomas Jessop’s journal lies in a collection of documents
entitled, “The Bottomley Papers.” In the collection, there is little detail
specifically regarding Thomas Jessop, his journal, or is history. Along with
the collection is a series of notes by Thomas H. Skewe, who researched the
Bottomley family. These notes indicate a Thomas Jessop Bottomley, born in 1840,
who married into the Bottomley family (Skewe 13). Jessop’s journal is dated
1791, so this is clearly not the same person, but most likely a relative of
Thomas Jessop Bottomley who somehow acquired and kept his family member’s
medical journal. Other than this small bit of information, all we know about
Thomas Jessop is that he migrated from London to the Milwaukee area, which is
documented by an expense list towards the back of the journal. Nevertheless,
Jessop’s journal still holds the same value through the demonstration of
medicine in the late 1700’s and its correlation to medicine today.
As Jessop’s journal is organized
alphabetically, the first entry after the title page is “Abortion.” Jessop
gives a brief summary of symptoms of what seem to be pregnancy complications
that may require pregnancy termination such as “unusual heaviness of the loins
or hips…shivering and shaking…pain of the head…belly above the navel” (Jessop
1). These symptoms may not seem that urgent, but relative to a time lacking in
medical expertise, they may have been that urgent and severe. Jessop goes on to
list a “Method of Cure” that states “keep the body open with manna or rhubarb
and bleed in the third month more or less according to the constitution of the
patient” (Jessop 1). The way this was treated brings particular curiosity into
the way that society viewed abortion. As a time period known particularly for
more Puritan-like beliefs, one may infer that abortion was looked down upon and
treated with the strictest of punishments. However, many people in this time
period had conflicting views on the subject. Very much like today, many
believed it to be a wretched thing to do while others maintained that it was a
woman’s certain right to have complete say over their children, born or not
(van de Walle 124, 127). Abortion is not the only entry developed specifically
for women’s issues, but is only one among others such as “Cancer of the Womb”
or “Barrenness” (Jessop 17).
Additionally, Jessop’s journal has a method of cure for a
woman who is having consistent trouble trying to reproduce. Jessop’s method
that he portrays in his journal is one of many particularly strange or
outlandish ways that he and the correlating newspaper recommends. Jessop
notates in journal “…give oil of sweet margarine with a little musk mixed with
the rennet of a hare,” which if read literally, means a mixture of margarine,
deer musk extract, and hare cheese (Jessop 17). Jessop’s treatment is obviously
ridiculous and most positive results of this treatment more than likely were
nothing but coincidence. However, they were not too strange compared to the
information on the subject that was being provided to the people through
published newspapers. The entry’s accompanying newspaper clip instructs the
patient to eat a coal covered mixture of various plant extract in the presence
of a man (Jessop 17). While some may think that these treatments are not worth
reading, they would be neglecting to realize that these unusual treatments were
widely published throughout many areas of the country. It was a form of
journalism which is directly related to American literature, as well as
American history. Jessop’s journal was not only filled with abnormal treatments
for complicated illnesses and disorder, but it also contains treatments that
were more developed and useful for common illnesses and disorders of that time
period such as gout, colds, and deep wounds.
With the way of the times, medicine was clearly far less
practical and developed than it is today. However, as people in this time
period in America put in far more excruciating laborious hours of work in
severely poor conditions, cases of things such as a cold, gout, deep wounds,
and headaches were arguably more common than they are now. With these things
occurring more frequently, the need to keep working with them through horrible
working conditions, and the under-developed medicine practice, the need for
experimentation for these common conditions was necessary, due to the
underdeveloped treatments. For instance, when Jessop suggests that licorice,
brown sugar, and lemon juice mixed with water may help cure a common cold, it
very well could work as a cough suppressant or relieve other symptoms (Jessop
55).
Along with both the unusual remedies and possibly
practical treatments, some of the entries in Jessop’s journal leave a somewhat
eerie sense of disparity. Throughout the journal, there are a handful of
entries for conditions that people in the medical community still struggle to
treat today. One instance of this happening in Jessop’s journal is his entry
notating his discoveries on cancer, or lack thereof. The entire page on this
crippling illness is left blank, only accompanied by yet another newspaper
antidote that certainly could never affect a cancer-ridden patient. It is
interesting to see that the helplessness some people face when dealing with
terminal cancer is demonstrated through this aged, blank journal entry. There
are several other entries left empty such as “brains inflammation,” “brains
commotion,” “melancholy,” “plague,” and most unsettling of all, “nightmare of
incubus.” These entries, while they do not contain any actual information, are
still part of the experience one receives from reading Jessop’s journal.
Through
the correlation of medicine, journalism, and literature, Thomas Jessop’s “Book
of Diseases with Medicines Proper for Each” and his collection of newspaper
columns holds great significance in not only our history as a country, but also
the history of medical community. Almost all of these entries have no practical
use, so it is easy to dismiss this piece of history of having any significance.
However, this journal gives one a glimpse into how trusted the press used to be
while, at the same time, putting medical advances into perspective. Without
artifacts like Jessop’s journal, there would be no comparison with the history
of journalism, which is the greatest thing to take out of this collection. The
only way to communicate ways of treatment and anything in that needed to be
spread, it was done through journalistic publications, so these were generally
more trusted sources of information, in comparison to the problem that people
face in the current day with the media. Jessop’s journal should be read and
studied by anyone who has an interest in the history of medicine and the
correspondence between the medical community and the general public of America
in the 1800s.
Works
Cited
Jessop, Thomas. “Book
of Diseases with Medicines Proper for Each.” 1791. N.p. 1-152. Print.
Skewe, Thomas H. “Notes
on the Bottomley Family.” N.d. N.p. 10-13. Print.
Van
de Walle. Etienne. “Towards a Demographic History of Abortion.” Population: An English Selection, Vol.
11. Institut National d'Études Démographiques. 1999. 115-131. Web.
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