Kitchen Physik: Women’s Recipes and Rural
Medicine in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain
Dr. Phyllis Thompson
My book-length project examines the
practical contributions women made to family medicine and community healthcare
in early eighteenth-century Britain through an analysis of the medicinal recipe
books they compiled and passed down to their daughters and granddaughters.
This study will fill a significant portion of the
gap in our knowledge of rural medicine in the eighteenth century by providing a
corrective history of the healing roles of women as practitioners of family
medicine, the manner in which home treatments developed by women were recorded
and passed on to the next generation, and illumination of the ethics of care
they fostered in rural communities. The project analyzes four carefully selected
manuscript recipe collections (Johanna St. John, Elizabeth Okeover, Mary Evelyn,
and Sarah Churchill) held in The Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine
(London), which is unrivaled as the principal repository for studies in medical
history, and The British Library (London).
My published research will bring to these overlooked
manuscripts the critical attention they merit.