504J Gibson, The Farriers Dispensatory : 1721

578J Salmon, The family-dictionary; or, Household companion: 1710

and

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504J. William Gibson. (1680-1751) 

The Farriers Dispensatory : In three parts. Containing I. A description of the medicinal simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses, with their Virtues and Manner of Operation, distributed into proper Classes, &c. II. The preparations of simples, vegetable, animal and mineral ; with an Explanation of the most usual Terms, both in the Chymical and Galenical Pharmacy. III. A number of useful compositions and receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases, never before published ; as also those of greatest Account from Solleysell, Ruini, Blundevill, and other most celebrated Authors, digested under their proper Heads of Powders, Balls, Drinks, Ointments, Charges, &c. The proper Method of compounding and making them, with many other useful Observations and Improvements tending to their right Administration. To which is also added, A compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book, whether Simple or Compound, with a Table of Diseases pointing to the Remedies proper in each Malady. By W. Gibson.

London : Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship and Black-Swan, in Pater-Noster-Row, 1721   $1,000

Octavo, 19.5 x 12 cm . signatures: A6 B-Y2 A2 B4  First edition Bound in contemporary full calf,with the book plate of John Hepburn Surgeon 1735 and a manuscript additional cure for sprains.

The Farriers Dispensatory was William Gibson’s supplement to his Farriers Guide. The second of his four published texts, the Dispensatory was a welcome successor to the incredibly well-received Farriers New Guide. This treatise was dedicated to Sir William Hope of Balcomie (1660-1724), a prominent equestrian and a translator of Jacques Solleysel’s (1617-1680) The Compleat Horseman (London, 1696). Sir William Hope believed that Gibson’s work was monumental and enlightening, going so far as to say that, ‘But be that as it will I am mightily well pleased that I can truly say, Britain has now a Gibson, as France formerly a Solleysell.’[*] Originally published in 1721, with a 2nd edition in 1724. Gibson left the army early in the 18th C to take up farriery, hoping it would be more profitable. His first publication was ‘The Farrier’s New Guide’, in 1721, the most scientific approach to diseases of horses to date, followed by the current work ‘The Farrier’s Dispensary’, on remedies used in farriery. The latter seems to have been of less use than the former, which went through many more editions. He wrote a larger work on the diseases of horses in 1750, and is considered one of the most important of the fathers of English farriery.

Gibson firmly believed that, at least at the time, those ‘endeavouring to make their Books compleat Systems, have not only rendered them much more perplexed than otherwise they would have been, but so tedious in many Place, that they are enough to deter any unaccustomed Reader from the least Perusal of them.’[22] In an effort to keep The Farriers New Guide from being unnecessarily complicated, Gibson chose not to include a collection of medicines and ‘receipts’ in his first text, but rather to publish an entire separate text to address such treatments. The Farriers Dispensatory, composed in three parts, contains a ‘Description of medicinal Simples, commonly made use of in the Diseases of Horses….,; the Preparations of Simples, Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral….; a Number of useful Compositions and Receipts suited to the Cure of all Diseases….;’ and ‘a compleat Index of all the Medicines contained in the Book.’[*]

Gibson specifically chose to structure his book as a dispensatory because it was the most extensive style of text and because he believed that it would be best suited to those who did not have the leisure or ability to read many books.[24] He also argued that his particular version of dispensatory guards ‘against all such Errors and Defects as have been already hinted at, by explaining the Nature of every Medicine, whether simple or compound, so far as is needful to the right Administration thereof, having also laid down the necessary Cautions, with a particular Observation of all such symptoms as require a Change or Alteration….’[25] It was vital to Gibson that his dispensatory improved upon the medical knowledge published and practiced by other farriers and authors. He claimed that many similar books took their prescribed medicines from books of physic for humans, but that the authors had little acquaintance with the study and did not properly adjust the recipes for equine use. Gibson warned that other farriery treatises recommended useless and insignificant cures, did not give proper doses or warnings, and suggested cures that, when mixed with others, reduced the cure’s effectiveness.[*] in 1671, new laws opening up previously restricted lands for the gentry to use for events such as hunts, expanded equine sports to those who had not had such opportunities due to their lack of land access. The need and desire for athletically gifted horses sparked an expansion of breeding in England and the surrounding countries. Tudor and Stuart monarchs ‘took the lead in improving the quality of the stock’ by importing Barbs, Turkomans, Neapolitans and other foreign horses with the intentions of improving the royal stud and producing more magnificent equine athletes.[**]

Peter Edwards, Horse and Man in Early Modern England (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007).

[*] Michael Hubbard MacKay, “The Rise of a Medical Specialty: The Medicalization of Elite Equine Care C. 1680 – C. 1800” (PhD Thesis, University of York, 2009).J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210.

[**] J.F. Smithcors, “William Gibson, Surgeon-Farrier, On Fevers,” Medical History 2, no. 3 (1958), 210.

English Short Title Catalog,; T94761

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582J  William Walwyn, (1600-1681)

 Physick for families. Or, The new, safe and powerful way of physick, upon constant proof established; enabling every one, at sea or land, by the medicines herein mentioned, to cure themselves, their friends and relations, in all distempers and diseases. Without any the trouble, hazzard, pain or danger of purgers, vomiters, bleedings, issues, glisters, blisters, opium, antimony and quicksilver, so full of perplexity in sickness. By William Walwyn physitian. 

London : printed, by J.R. and are to be sold by the author, 1696.  $2,500

Octavo,14 x 9 cm.  signatures: A2-K8 Lacking a frontispiece A1 portrait of William Walwyn engraved by R. White .Third edition, the first wass printed in 1674. 

This copy is bound in a red textured cloth with “Birmingham Medical Institute” on the spine as well as “Walwyn’s Physic-1696.” This copy is lacking the portrait  which is supplied in Xerox.

William Walwyn, the son of Robert Walwyn, was born in Newland, Worcestershire, 1600. As a young man he was apprenticed to a silkman in Paternoster Row. Later he started his own business and joined the Merchant Adventurers Company.  As a Puritan, Walwyn supported the Parliamentary army during the Civil War. In 1645 he published a pamphlet, England’s Lamentable Slavery. In 1646 Walwyn joined with John Lilburne, and John Wildman to form a new political party called the Levellers. 

Their political programme included:  voting rights for all adult males, annual elections, complete religious freedom, an end to the censorship of books and newspapers, the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, trial by jury, an end to taxation of people earning less than £30 a year and a maximum interest rate of 6%.   Walwyn became the leader of the Levellers in London and in September 1647 helped organize a petition demanding male suffrage. Walwyn, along with John Lilburne and Richard Overton, published An Agreement of the People. When the reforms were opposed by officers in the New Model Army, Walwyn called for the soldiers to revolt. On 28th March 1649, Walwyn was arrested and charged with advocating communism. After being brought before the Council of State he was sent to the Tower of London. 

On his release The Leveller leaders were released from prison in November 1649 following Lilburne’s trial and acquittal. Walwyn pledged his loyalty to the Commonwealth by taking the Oath of Engagement and returned to quiet family life at his home in Moorfields. He became interested in medicine and began practicing as a physician during the 1650s, publishing several medical tracts and handbooks. He died in January 1681. 

Walwyn wrote a large number of pamphlets arguing for religious toleration. His best known work included The Fountain of Slander Discovered(1649), Counterfeit Preaching (1649) and Just Defence(1649). William Walwyn died in 1681. 

Two Copies in N.America: U.S. National Library of Medicine , University of Minnesota ,UCLA

Other copies I have located are at British Library and University of Birmingham

Wing (2nd ed.), W690