too, and this, not only in
his own town, but also in all those of the vicinity." Mather says of the
sons of Charles Chauncy, "All of these did, while they had Opportunity,
Preach the Gospel; and most, if not all of them, like their excellent
Father before them, had an eminent skill in physick added unto their
other accomplishments," etc. Roger Williams is said to have saved many
in a kind of pestilence which swept away many Indians.

To these names must be added, as sustaining a certain relation to the
healing art, that of the first Governor Winthrop, who is said by John
Cotton to have been "Help for our Bodies by Physick [and] for our
Estates by Law," and that of his son, the Governor of Connecticut, who,
as we shall see, was as much physician as magistrate.

I had submitted to me for examination, in 1862, a manuscript found among
the Winthrop Papers, marked with the superscription, "For my worthy
friend Mr. Wintrop," dated in 1643, London, signed Edward Stafford, and
containing medical directions and prescriptions. It may be remembered by
some present that I wrote a report on this paper, which was published
in the "Proceedings" of this Society. Whether the paper was written for
Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts, or for his son, Governor John
of Connecticut, there is no positive evidence that I have been able
to obtain. It is very interesting, however, as giving short and simple
practical directions, such as would be most like to be wanted and most
useful, in the opinion of a physician in repute of that day.

The diseases prescribed for are plague, small-pox, fevers, king's evil,
insanity, falling-sickness, and the like; with such injuries as broken
bones, dislocations, and burning with gunpowder. The remedies are of
three kinds: simples, such as St. John's wort, Clown's all-heal, elder,
parsley, maidenhair, mineral drugs, such as lime, saltpetre, Armenian
bole, crocus metallorum, or sulphuret of antimony; and thaumaturgic or
mystical, of which the chief is, "My black powder against the plague,
small-pox; purples, all sorts of feavers; Poyson; either, by Way of
Prevention or after Infection." This marvellous remedy was made by
putting live toads into an earthen pot so as to half fill it, and baking
and burning them "in the open ayre, not in an house,"--concerning which
latter possibility I suspect Madam Winthrop would have had something to
say,--until they could be reduced by pounding, first into a brown, and
t