Technical Notes

Eighteenth-Century Colonial Formularies:
The Manuscripts of George de Benneville and Abraham Wagner

Technical Notes

Link to index of manuscripts:

These Technical Notes describe editorial and technical conventions adopted in reproducing the Medicina Pensylvania and the Remediorum Specimina aliquot ex praxi A. W[agner] on this website. Since the two manuscripts are different in structure, content, and language, somewhat different approaches were required to render them into a searchable format. However, for reasons of research economy and accessibility, both searchable texts are in English throughout.

The College of Physicians Historical Medical Digital Library reproduces the two manuscripts page by page, using the digital collections management software ContentDM, originally developed at the University of Washington. The manuscripts are produced as physical images (700 pixel x 1,000 pixel jpg files in the case of de Benneville and 400 x 700 pixel jpg files in the case of Wagner), and provide access to a fully searchable text in one of the metadata fields. For the Medicina Pensylvania, this text is a transcription of the English original edited for consistency; for the Remediorum Specimina, an English translation is provided for the text and the pharmaceutical notation used by the author. This translation provides access to the

both rendered into standard 18th century English usage.

Because formatting options are limited in the metadata fields, several tables in non-searchable pdf format are provided for weights, measures and some astrological symbols in the Medicina Pennsylvania. These pdf files can be accessed via direct links in the "Page Description" view of a particular page.

Manuscript description

The Medicina Pensylvania or The Pensylvania Physician is a 187-folio formal document numbered in duplicate pages to folios 147-148, written in English and German on facing pages. The left side of the title page is inscribed: By a French Author. (signed) G. de B. Senior and dated by another hand as circa 1770. The front matter ís unpaginated clean copy and consists of a 6-page introduction in German entitled Ad lectorem, which appears only in the German version, with the facing pages left empty. We have imaged but not transcribed this German text, which is thus not searchable. It is followed by an unpaginated trilingual introductory inventory of plant, animal and mineral substances. The folios from 149-187 are unpaginated chapbook notes in English, probably attributable to de Benneville's sons and successors in his practice and date roughly from 1780-1820. They are not reproduced as part of this website.


The "table of contents" of the dual-language Medicina Pensylvania

The pagination in the main body of the Medicina Pensylvania follows a system in which the facing pages bear the same page number but are on physically different folios: the English pages are on the left and identified on the website as the verso and the German pages are on the right and identified as the recto. This is in contrast to regular practice in which the verso of a particular page is the side following the recto rather than preceding it. We presume that this arrangement was to permit the reader to study the text in two languages at the same time without being forced to turn the page. We have availed ourselves of this scheme to reproduce a full version of both the German and the English untranscribed manuscripts to enable comparison of both original texts and conventions used. For instance, in the main body of the work, headings and entries are given in Latin on both pages, accompanied by English or German terms, respectively. The exception to this convention is the section on astral medicine, tartars, and the uroscopy, where no Latin text is used, indicating that a different, non-Latin source was used by the author.

Because the manuscript is a combination of unpaginated and paginated folios that do not match standard numbering conventions, we have adopted a dual numbering scheme in the list of pages that serves as a table of contents, visible to the left in the digital editions. The bracketed page numbers 1-39 to the left of each page label serve as pagination for the unpaginated front matter. Beginning with page 40, where the bilingual paginated main body of the work begins, we have labeled the pages with a bracketed page number (counting consecutively from the first page), the page number assigned to it by an earlier owner, and a section and language identifier. Thus,

deb[pg040]Simples001-eng refers to the first numbered page of the "Simples" section, in English
deb[pg041]Simples002-ger refers to the second numbered page of the "Simples" section, in German.

The Remediorum Specimina comprise a 200-page octavo volume of clinical observations and a large collection of extemporaneous formulae compiled by the author, with subsequent additions and revisions by himself and unidentified others. Written during the colonial and postcolonial period from roughly 1743 to 1792, the manuscript was apparently rearranged at least once (dates unknown), leaving a number of blank pages on either the standard recto or verso side of the folio. These blank pages have not been imaged but are counted and are so identified in the listing of folios to the left of the images. The main language and spelling is 18th century German, with few major regional influences evident. Recipes and names of diseases are in German and Latin, and there is copious pharmaceutical notation of the period for mineral substances and composita. (See the Selected Readings section for reproductions of these, such as Schneider, 1962, and Estes, 1990, and much of the German dispensatory literature of the period.) Some English weights and measures and terminology begin to appear on later pages. However, one undated insert from an "English Dispensatory" appears as early as folio 16 recto (Pulvis Anticardialgicus, Vors Sodbrennen); most appear to have been added after the author's death in 1763.

The handwriting is often difficult to decipher because of numerous overwritings, deletions and insertions. Words or phrases of doubtful meaning are identified thus in the translation: [?]. Software constraints have made it impossible to use italics or boldface fonts or use similar illustrative graphical conventions.

Editorial conventions


"Page and text" view

The searchable text appears in its own space on the right hand side of each image in "page and text" view and is contiguous with the image page. In the Medicina Pennsylvania, the original version was written to be concordant between pages and the trancription follows this to the extent possible. In the Remediorum Specimina, line differences occur because of the difference in sentence structure in German and English (indicated by ellipsis marks). We have not tried to impose a uniform physical format on the searchable texts. Because formatting options are limited in the metadata fields, text that was presented in columnar format in the orignal, such as the trilingual materia medica in the Medicina Pensylvania and several three column recipes in the Remediorum Specimina, appear as running text with line divisions maintained, and terms divided by semicolons. A fully formatted pdf table has been provided in these and similar instances in the Medicina Pensylvania.

Spellings and capitalization

The pharmaceutical spellings in both manuscripts are fairly standard for the period, but not uniform, again as customary for the time. They have been standardized only to the extent necessary to permit string searches while leaving enough variation to make it possible to trace the origin of some of the recipes and, in the case of the Medicina Pensylvania, of the likely English version used. We have capitalized class headings, used initial capitals for headings, and added appropriate spaces for clarity. The names of all medicines (crude drugs, chemicals and preparations) have likewise been capitalized. A few differences in approaches between the two manuscripts are noted in the following:

Medicina Pensylvania. The English transcription into searchable text follows the original nomenclature, although we have extended abbreviations and truncated spellings (e.g., Tr. into Tinctura) and conformed Latin and German declensions to the nominative to provide standard search terms. Additionally, an attempt has been made to standardize the Latin usage to assist the user relying on more recent Latin compendia and dictionaries. Obvious scribal errors have been corrected as well.

Remediorum Specimina. The English terms used in translating recipes and names of medicines generally follow contemporary writings, notably Quincy (1719, 1720), Robert James' Pharmacopoeia Universalis (1747), The New Edinburgh Dispensatory by William Lewis (1753 ed. and a two volume German translation published in Hamburg, 1768-72), and The Medical Dictionary of John Redman Coxe (1808). Lorenz Heister's Chirurgie was used to translate non-Latin disease names in view of the frequent specific reliance on this 18th century authority in the manuscript. See in particular the German editions of 1731, 1763, and 1779, and the concordant translation into English of 1743, as well as A Compendium of the Practice of Physic, an edited compendium by Edmund Barker of 1757. Additionally, we note the term breast in several places describing diseases of the chest, and the use of "Kinder" or "kleine Kinder" (children or small children) where the reference is largely to infants.

In rendering the prescriptions on the page, we have standardized as follows: a colon follows each Rx sign; commas are used to separate substances for which the same quantities are stated. In listings, commas are omitted at the end of single item lines with their own weights. Where the ms. sets out the formula as a prescription, we have preserved the written order of the quantities (e.g., scruples 2). Elsewhere we have reversed for smoother reading. To provide orientation on the page, Latin disease names and classes of medicines have been retained as written in rendering section headings.

Editorial revisions, original insertions and deletions

For both manuscripts, square brackets [ ] are used to indicate the following:

Deletions and insertions in the original. They are noted thus:

Specific Editors' notes, likewise in square brackets, serve to flag faulty page

For the Remediorum Specimina, changes apparently inserted by compilers and editors other than the author appear as on the page, with the exception of several illegible additions in a clearly different hand. These are so identified. In view of the visual proximity on the website of the original text to the translations, we also have chosen not to introduce into our translation German terminology added by later users of the recipes to identify specific Latin or English terms. This was done to avoid cluttering the searchable version with additional terminology or explanatory brackets.

Abbreviations and symbols

The Medicina Pensylvania is generally free of pharmaceutical symbols. Exceptions are

By contrast, the Remediorum Specimina required continuous and consistent translation of pharmaceutical notation to make the manuscript accessible to a modern reader. A number of works in pharmaceutical history provide modern access to these symbols, which by as early as the mid 17th century had turned into chemical and pharmaceutical shorthand rather than hermetic symbols barring access to outsiders. This evolution has not made them easier to transliterate, however, and the reader is advised that in many cases approximations of the symbols provided by authorities such as Schneider (1962) have been used.

Searches

The Historical Medical Digital Library offers separate access to each manuscript, with string searches possible within each manuscript. One can search across both manuscripts by using the "advanced search" link at the top of the page.

Select "Colonial formularies" as the collection; search results will include both the Medicina Pensylvania and the Remediorum Specimina.

Or use the search box at the top of the left contents bar when searching a particular manuscript, whether the bilingual de Benneville in its English version or the English translation of the Wagner manuscript. Note that because there is no transcription of the German-language version of either manuscript, it is not possible to search directly for German text or headings. However, it is possible to search on the English term in the bilingual version of the de Benneville; selecting the next page, which will bear the same identifier (e.g., "Simples 001") and the suffix "ger", will bring up the appropriate German-language page. Again, the German images of the Wagner manuscript face the translation in the "page and text" view.

The search function enables searches for the presence and type of specific recipes, ingredients, procedures, dosages, etc., and of conditions and disease names. Thus, a search for "nitre" and/or "saltpetre" will bring up most if not all uses of this substance in names of recipes and in lists of ingredients. Also, named recipes like Tachenius' Vitriolated Tartar if fully entered will appear wherever mentioned. However, a search for tartar will include this reference but also all other tartar mentions, enabling searches for cross references, in particular in the Remediorum Specimina, where several substances mentioned in the clinical notes are given in detail in the appropriate formulary section (e.g., bezoar powders of various types).

Note, however, that the searches are limited to the modern text versions and thus are not straightforward throughout. The transcription of the de Benneville manuscript can be searched for both standardized Latin and English terms. We suggest searching for the English terms in the Remediorum Specimina, where we have retained the inflected forms of the Latin heads to permit orientation on the page. Also, for the physician names mentioned, changes in spellings were needed in view of Latin declensions in the original and bracketed extensions of ellipses (Stahlius to Stahl, W to W[edel], A.[braham] W.[agner], for instance).

Spelling conventions

Names. With the exceptions noted, the spellings of most physician names attached to recipes have been standardized in English to permit searches while retaining some similarity to the spelling on the manuscript page. This is common in particular in the Wagner manuscript, which refers extensively to specific recipe forms used by or attributed to medical authorities and local colleagues.

Examples follow:

Tachenius' Vitriolated Tartar
Sylvius's Digestive Salt
Stahl's Alexipharmic Essence
The pills of Becher and Stahl

but

A.W. for A[braham] W[agner]
W. for [Georg Wolfgang] W[edel), whose name appears fully spelled out elsewhere
M. H. for M[elchior] H[übner] or [H]eebner. The latter spelling is used throughout since this is how he appears in the colonial literature.
M[artin] J[ohn]
[Moses or Isaac?] Bartram for Bertram

or in divergent spellings, such as

Würtz for Wirtz
G.H M. (George Haubtmann Medicus]

The latter name presents a dilemma: He is often referred to as the author's great grandfather. We retain the spelling b instead of the more modern p, which also appears in the printed references in the Schwenkfelder archives. The M[edicus] is an assumption on the part of the German editors as indicating his medical status. Note also that the spelling "George" instead of the German "Georg" was apparently pervasive in all our transcribed texts and has been left to stand. Likewise, to facilitate searches, we have used throughout the accepted American-English spelling Schwenkfeld or Schwenkfelder, although most bibliogrpahies spell the founder of the sect thus: Caspar von Schwenckfeld.

Materia medica and technical terms. To permit rough concordance between the Medicina Pensylvania and the Remediorem Specimina, we have attempted to standardize spellings, again trying to maintain fixed points of comparison with the writing on the original page and to avoid artifical consistency. Some examples follow:

Terminal c instead of ck as in emetic, diaphoretic, ammoniac, etc.

Clyster instead of glyster

Discutient, n. and adj.

Tormentil
Sulphur
Cubebs, pl
Elixir of property [Elixir Proprietatis]
Crab eyes or stones
Distilled Spirits in running text

but

Spirits, distilled in recipes

Tartar emetic for emetic tartar
Sweet Cane for Calamus
Penny-Royal

but

Melissa and Balm
Mother-Thyme and Mother of Thyme

to indicate parallel usages. The Medicina Pensylvania has 28 entries for balm, and one user of the Remediorum specimina felt it necessary to supplement melissa with (balm) on fol. 38v. Readers interested in all original spellings or names of plants and minerals should consult alternative terms.

Limitations and challenges for future work

Transcribing and translating these manuscripts presented many challenges. Not all of these have been resolved at the time of posting on the web. Above all, constraints on physical resources such as the lack of continuous access to the numerous editions of formularies and dispensatories in both German and English has hampered a fuller comparison and attribution of multiple or singular sources considered. (See the listing of printed primary sources in the Selected Readings.)

Of methodological and technical concern is the fact that the margin of error created by the use of traditional but by no means standardized pharmaceutical symbols is wide. Additionally, while certain terms (e.g., tempering, discutient) have been used throughout for consistency, they may not always capture the intended meaning. One difficulty is that the manuscripts are not only compilations of formulae from different sources, but also cannot be definitively ascribed in their entirety to a particular author. We have noted the extensive parallel use of current English dispensatories and pharmacopoias and corresponding German sources, coupled with relatively unknown material in the Medicina Pensylvania, although the existing manuscript appears to have been produced as a final copy.

By contrast, the Remediorum Specimina are certainly attributable to more than one person, certainly after Wagner's death in 1763, and probably include Melchior Hübner or Heebner, his medical predecessor and mentor in this country. If readers find discordance between some English terms used in the translation and those found in contemporary sources, this reflects lack of concordance in the literature of the time.

Since this website format invites and permits an interactive approach instead of passive reading, however, we welcome corrections and/or alternative interpretations and a more definitive assignment of sources, which may be included in a future website update. In particular, we hope that users will accept this document as a research tool and avail themselves of the opportunity to work across two different manuscripts from the colonial period but relying on similar sources.


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