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Aubrey, John, 1626-1697

"The Natural History of Wiltshire"

by his mistress, Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland.
He was created Duke of Southampton in 1674; became Duke of Cleveland
on the death of his "cruel mother "in 1709; and died in 1730.-J. B.]
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Mdm. Dr. W. Harvey told me that the biteing of a man enraged is
poysonous. He instanced one that was bitt in the hand in a quarrell,
and it swoll up to his shoulder, and killed him in a short time. [That
death, from nervous irritation, might follow such a wound is not
improbable: but that it was caused by any "poison" infused into the
system is an idea too absurd for refutation.- J. B.]

CHAPTER XV.
DISEASES AND CURES.
[SEVERAL passages may have been noticed in the preceding pages,
calculated to shew the ignorance which prevailed in Aubrey's time on
medical subjects, and the absurd remedies which were adopted for the
cure of diseases. In the present chapter this topic is further
illustrated. It contains a series of recipes of the rudest and most
unscientific character, amongst which the following are the only parts
suited to this publication. Aubrey describes in the manuscript an
instrument made of whalebone, to be thrust down the throat into the
stomach, so as to act as an emetic. He states that this contrivance
was invented by "his counsel learned in the law," Judge Rumsey; and
proceeds to quote several pages, with references to its advantages,
from a work by W. Rumsey, of Gray's Inn, Esq.


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Akogo Fundacja Hobbit Mimo Wszystko Niechciane i Zapomniane Fundacja Sloneczko