N. 32

A female slave was suffering from dysentery for a long time. I often gave her a powder against the dysentery (prescription 13) and a pill (prescription 14) the size of a nutmeg, the latter even twice a day. Everyday I gave her a glass of wine but, although we were driven up on the river, refreshments were lacking. She died on the 20th of the previously mentioned month, while we were lying in front of the fortress the Berbice riverin Guyana Berbice.

Prescription 13

R/ Misce fac pulvis ad disenteriam [mix and make a powder against dysentery], taken in during a trip

• Radix rhei tosti [root of roasted rhubarb]: ℈ II
• Nuces moscatae [nutmeg, in cases of dysentery]: ℈ ß

• ℈ scruple = 20 grain, so approximately 1.3 g
• ß = ½ of the given amount

Prescription 14: the size of a nutmeg, three times a day in case of a dysentery, lientery [diarrhoea which carries off the food undigested] after first having cleansed the body

R/ Misce fac bolus [mix and make a fatty substance]

• Conserva rosarum rubrarum  [rose hip conserve; against scurvy]: ℈ II
• Crocus martis adstringens [a kind of saffron]
• Cornu cervi usti [burnt cornu-cervi]
• Sanguis draconis [dragon’s blood; a bright red resin that is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Croton, Dracaena, Daemonorops, Calamus rotang and Pterocarpus; styptic]: ana ℈ ß
• Laudanum opiatum [opium drops, analgetic]: gr: II
• Oleum menthae [mint oil]: gutta, plural: guttaedropguttae V

• ℈ scruple = 20 grain, so approximately 1.3 g
• ß = ½ of the given amount
• āā en ān: and ānn = ana (Gr.) take an equal amount of all
• gr. = grein ; approximately 65 mg