A superb early impression of John Wesley's Primitive Physic. Considered rather cutting edge medical advice of the day, it was distributed largely to Methodist traveling and local preachers to assist them in the medical care of their communities, which often lacked formally trained physicians.
This particular copy has a fascinating provenance. It belonged to 2nd Lieutenant Synge Tottenham of the 28th Infantry of Foot, Gloucestershire, whose troops were stationed outside Dublin during the 1770's and 1780's. His station there would have put him inside the Castle of Lord Charlemont, which often doubled as a Fort. As it happened, this was also a the place Wesley stayed while in London and, on two separate occasions, experienced remarkable revivals.
He visited first in 1778, where he records:
I travelled through a delightful country to Charlemont, where Captain Tottenham was the Commanding Officer. We lodged with him in the castle, which stands on an eminence, and commands the country on all sides. A tent was set up in the castle-yard, where all the soldiers were drawn up at eleven, with abundance of people from many miles round, who were all attention. In the evening their number was considerably enlarged; but still all heard as for life. [June 20, 1778]
And nine years later, he took recourse to the castle grounds again:
At eleven I preached in the castle-yard at Charlemont, to a large congregation gathered from all parts, it being the Quarterly Meeting. Immediately followed the lovefeast. But the preaching-house would not contain one half of the people; so we borrowed the Green in the Fort, and let the people through the wicket one by one. They then sat down on the grass, being full as private as in the house; and many spoke their experience quite freely. But the rain obliged us to break off our meeting sooner than we intended. It began in the evening, before I had finished the hymn, but stopped in two or three minutes, and left us a fair and tolerably pleasant evening. [June 1, 1787].
Dated November 16, 1787, the volume was likely gifted either to 2nd Lieutenant Tottenham or Lord Charleton to be used for the care of the soldiers under his command. Tottenham pens on the title that it is not be stolen, as he had already lost one . . . perhaps one from Wesley's first visit? It seems not unlikely the volume was gifted by Wesley himself during his visit, or was perhaps sent by Wesley after hearing of his loss of the first while in Dublin just 4 months earlier.
Not only an early impression, but augmented with significant additions, likely in the hand of Tottenham, so a fascinating insight into medical care from a soldier's perspective in the immediate period of the American Revolutionary War, etc.,
Wesley, John. Primitive Physick: Or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases. The Sixteenth Edition. London. Printed by R. Hawes, 1774. 160pp.
A good + copy, bound in leather; boards shaken with leather through at hinges as shown; text block is generally solid. Pages are a bit handled, with light foxing as shown.
