English recipe and commonplace book : manuscript.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Contributor:

Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chemistry.

Formulas, recipes, etc.

Medicine--Formulae, receipts, prescriptions.

Medicine.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

commonplace books.

Manuscripts, English -- 19th century.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Deborah Coltham Rare Books (Worchester, England), 2024.

Physical Description:

1 volume (64 pages) ; 24 x 17 cm

Production:

Sheffield, England, 1848-1855.

Summary:

This volume was created in England between 1848 and 1855 by an unidentified creator and contains 139 medicinal and household recipes in addition to commonplace entries that include poems, prose, scientific facts, and current events. The creator supplied pagination for this volume (p. 1-50, 60-73) but appears to have skipped pages 51 through 59. It does not seem as if any pages are missing or were removed from this volume and no text is noticeably missing. The entries in this volume range from standard, practical, household and medicinal recipes to novel entertainments, general curiosities, and the macabre. Many of these more unique entries have to do with chemical reactions, such as those that occur in photography or those that result in death. Examples of the recipes in this volume include James Pycroft's recipe for French polish (p. 1), never failing cure for a Rheumatism (p. 2), J. White for the scurvy (p. 3), Barclay's antibilious pills (p. 7), Anderson's pills (p. 8), to silver glass (p. 10), hair dye (p. 12), to make good red sealing wax (p. 15), gunpowder (p. 17), Robert Wilson to make waterproof cloth (p. 18), to remove grease for books (p. 19), to make blue fire (p. 26), to paint the glasses of magic lanterns (p. 27), casting nativities (p. 33), treacle beer (p. 39), to clean oil paintings (p. 45), flooring for stables (p. 61), and chronic asthma (p. 65).There are numerous recipes for toothpaste and oral health concerns (p. 12, 13, 15, 34, 50), such as D. Wells remedy for bad breath (p. 19). Commonplace entries include "total eclipse of the sun 28th July" (1851) (p. 11), death from inhalation of chloroform and James Young Simpson's use of chloroform (p. 21), "shocking death at Sheffield March 15" (death of James Heywood, chemistry teacher at Wesley College) (p. 22), chromatype photography (p. 62), Burton on mesmerism (p. 69), and marks in the human skin made by Indian ink (p. 70).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Fund.

Cited as:

English Recipe and Commonplace Book (Ms. Codex 2226). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

OCLC:

1460523897