Finding Aid for the Pole Evil Medicine and Other Cures Manuscript Biomed.0282

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Pole evil medicine and other cures manuscript

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0282

Physical Description: 1 unknown (170 pages)

Date (inclusive): 1850-1851

Language of Material: English .

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UCLA Catalog Record ID: 5307783 

Manuscript includes treatments and recipes such as "Pole Evil Medicine--is to be applied first to the sore direct in quantities sufficient to saturate ... "; "Rev. J.B. Findley's Recipe for Cholera Morbus"; "E.C. Cooper, M.D. on Cronic [sic] Bronchitis"; treatment for "Gleet and Gonnorhea" [sic]; and "Clergyman's Sore Throat" as well as recipes for sausage meat, curing hams, how to pickle 100 pounds of beef, black ink and blue ink, hair dye, and fruit grafting wax. Pole or Poll Evil medicine is used to treat a type of fistula found in horses.

Veterinary recipes include: "L. Buxton of Worcester, Mass. cure for a stipled joint" for horses; "Cattle Alternative and appetizer"; "Hog Cholera Cure"; a treatment for "Sore Eyes for Horses"; "Horse Powder" and a "Cure for Scratches" for horses among other remedies and treatments. Also included are the directions for tanning sheep skins and other hides with hair.

Documents the "Record [of the] proceedings of the Billingsville Literary Lyceum organized October 22, 1850." The group "met at the School House near said town for the purpose of organizing a debating society." During the first meeting "James P. Kennedy, Henry Wright and James Gavin were selected as a committee to draft a constitution and By Laws [sic] for said Lyceum." The manuscript contains a copy of the constitution and bylaws as approved by the membership including a note that "The Ladies of Billingsville and vicinity are very respectfully and cordially invited to meet with us." Subsequently, an "Amendment, Art 12th," which allows that "Ladies are permitted to become members of the Lyceum without paying the initiation fee" was accepted. The bylaws were presented and adopted "Dec. 13th, 1850." The first debate topic selected for discussion was "That mankind enjoy [sic] more happiness in pursuit than in possession." At each meeting, "the proceedings of the previous meeting were read;" after which "the question selected [for the] proceeding meeting was discussed and decided in favor of" the affirmative or the negative. The debate topic for the next meeting and the "disputants" are then identified and designated. Topics debated included: "Resolved that conscience is a creature of education and not an innate principle", that "capital punishment should be abolished", that "foreign immigration to the United States should be prohibited after the year 1850", that "our present Grand Jury system should be abolished" and many other timely and notable topics. The manuscript also includes a list of the "Names of Members" and "Names of Members--Females."

Laid in (on individual sheets of paper) is a treatment "good for all kinds of tumors and cancer" and a recipe for "Carpet Wash" as well as a hank of blonde hair with a braid identified as that of "Elanore [sic] Scott 3 1/2 years."