be cured, of course," she answered. "Not all the doctors in England can cure thee," he said sternly; "thou must go home and die." "I shall not go home," said the lady, "till you have tried your hand on me. I can bear any pain you inflict, and I can only die at last." "Thou art a brave lass," said John; "I will try, and God prosper us." The lady stayed at Whitworth six months, and went home cured. She lived thirty years longer.
This lady was well known to William Howitt, a Quaker and popular writer in the first half of the nineteenth century. In an article he wrote in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, 1839, Mr. Howitt relates recollections of a visit he had paid to Whitworth some twenty years previously, and from that visit, and from the conversations he had had with the lady just referred to, he had gathered the particulars which he gave in his article.
While under the care of Doctor John at Whitworth the lady told Mr. Howitt how she occupied herself in assisting "Mrs. George," old John's daughter-in-law, to prepare the medicines. Glauber's salts were principally relied upon for internal administration. A caustic known as "keen" was used for eradicating cancers; a black salve made up into sticks; a snuff made from asarabacca leaves which he grew in his garden; blisters; and the Red Bottle, made up the medicinal armoury. The last is made still in Lancashire, thus: Camphor, 6; oil of origanum, 6; Anchusa root, 1; methylated spirit, 80.
The lady's account of the preparation of the salve was that they used to boil a kettleful of ingredients, and then they would mop the kitchen floor. While
