A Look Inside

A simple cover page, including an inscription which reads  “I am man: nothing human is strange to me.”

The first page of Wesley’s preface, sounding very much like one of his sermons.  He writes “As [the first man] knew no Sin, so he knew no Pain, no Sickness, Weakness, or bodily Disorder.” A connection between the physical and spiritual is being laid out in this preface.

An interesting aspect of the edition that the Special Collection holds is that it includes handwritten marginalia.  Not really marginalia, as it appears whole pages have been left blank to serve as a journal-like platform.  These notes include extra receipts, usually related to the disease on the adjacent page.

More marginalia, but definitely from a different hand.  The text on treating consumption is interesting as it includes lists of several possible or attempted cures.  Some, like number 170, inform the reader if the prescription has been tried or not.

Pages from a section on coughs, the different types, and recommended treatment.  The marginalia does not specify which type of cough the extra instructions are for.

The nature of the marginalia is made clear here, as it appears to provide additional information on curing a cut, with directions that are quite contrary to the text.  Readers could either take the marginalia as the correct treatment, or a backup when Wesley’s cure fails.

The beginning of the section on cold-bathing.  Note the mention of this practice being efficient in preventing hereditary melancholy.  One could say that pseudo-science is still very present in the early 1700s if one includes the idea of false diagnosis of misunderstood diseases.

Beginning of Chapter VII, on the “Passions,” the principal of these being Joy, Anger, and Fear.  Wesley states that these affect the body; the idea of the humors was still affecting medical discourse.

The chapter on the state of blood, which Wesley argues determines the state of the body.  Fluids of the body were understood to be very important and telling of the condition of the rest of the body’s parts.

An addition found in the Special Collection’s edition.  It appears to have been pasted in.  No date is available to help indicate when this was added.