1769

__________ 

“Children on the very brink of the Grave … have almost miraculously recovered after having worn the famous Anodyne Necklace but one night’s time.” 

A miracle medical cure is proclaimed

__________

A colonial gentleman.

AS EXPLAINED by the Library of Congress, it was in 1769 that, 

The Virginia House of Burgesses passed resolutions condemning Britain’s actions against Massachusetts, and stating that only Virginia’s governor and legislature could tax its citizens. The members also drafted a formal letter to the King, completing it just before the legislature was dissolved by Virginia’s royal governor.

 

* 

GEORGE WASHINGON warned his fellow colonists: “Our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American liberty.”

 

* 

AS JOHN C. MILLER explains, in 1769, “it was forbidden in Virginia to castrate slaves for any offense other than a rape or attempted rape upon a white woman.” (300/156)

 

* 

CHILDREN AFFLICTED with rickets are common in the Thirteen Colonies. Today we know that the problem is caused by lack of Vitamin D or calcium, or both, in the diet. 

Alice Morse Earle notes that in the latter part of the seventeenth century, “Snails furnished many doses for the rickets. The cure suggested by Rev. Joseph Perry of Windsor, Connecticut to a friend is little better: 

Rev’d Sir 

In ye Rickets the best Corrective I have ever found is a Syrup made of Black Cherrys. Thus. Take of Cherrys (dry’d ones are as good as any) & put them into a vessel with water. Set ye vessel near ye fire and let ye water be Scalding hot. Then take ye Cherrys into a thin Cloth and squeeze them into ye Vessell, & sweeten ye Liquor with Melosses. Give 2 Spoonfuls of this 2 or 3 times in a day. If you Dip your Child, Do it in this manner: viz: naked, in ye morning, head foremost in Cold Water, don’t dress it Immediately, but let it be made warm in ye Cradle & sweat at least half an Hour moderately. Do this 3 mornings going & if one or both feet are Cold while other Parts sweat (which is sometimes ye Case) Let a little blood be taken out of ye feet ye 2nd Morning and yt will cause them to sweat afterwards. Before ye dips of ye Child give it some Snakeroot and Saffern Steep’d in Rum & Water, give this Immediately before Diping and after you have dipt ye Child 3 Mornings Give it several times a Day ye following Syrup made of Comfry, Hartshorn, Red Roses, Hog-brake roots, knot-grass, petty-moral roots, sweeten ye Syrup with Melosses. Physicians are generally fearful about diping when ye Fever is hard, but oftentimes all attemps to lower it without diping are vain. Experience has taught me that these fears are groundless, yt many have about diping in Rickety Fevers; I have found in a multitude of Instances of diping is most effectual means to break a Rickety Fever. These Directions are agreable to what I have practiced for many years.

 

Another “surefire” cure for all kinds of illnesses and ailments was a special “Anodyne necklace.” When children were teething, it could be had for only twenty shillings, but what mother could be without it! 

Children on the very brink of the Grave and thought past recovery with their teeth, fits, fevers, convulsions, hooping and other violent coughs, gripes, looseness, and all proceeding from their teeth who cannot tell what they suffer nor make known their pains any other way but by crying and moans, have almost miraculously recovered after having worn the famous Anodyne Necklace but one night’s time. A mother then would never forgive herself whose child should die for want of so very easy a remedy for its teeth. And what is particularly remarkable of this necklace is, that of those vast numbers who have had this necklace for their children, none have made any complaints but express how glad they have been that their children have worn it whereas if they had not had it, they believed their children would have been in the grave, all means having been used in vain until they had the necklace.

 

Other devices for easing teething in infants: necklaces of fawn’s teeth or wolf’s fangs.