Pictures of Nursing

Medical Recipe Book, ca. 1750

This 155-page manuscript is filled with hand-written recipes for potions, salves, ointments, and poultices to treat a wide range of ailments and illnesses. Among the many recipes are treatments for ague, miscarriages, sore eyes, burns, and bleeding. Commonly found herbs or kitchen ingredients form the basis of many of the recipes—such as salt peter, cinnamon, rose water, chamomile, fennel, and nettles. An index at the front of the manuscript lists recipes by first letter of the known ailment.

Courtesy National Library of Medicine