EDWARDS, Edward.

First edition of this handy compendium in English of the causes and treatments of all kinds of fever. Nothing appears to be known of the (Welsh?) physician Edward Edwards, with a final ‘imprimatur’ from the Bishop of London after the text was examined and approved by the physician Alexander Read. This manual begins with a preface warning the reader against ‘impostors’, and ‘petticoat’ physicians and surgeons who are ‘gossips’ ‘who being frequent among sick folks, and hearing the advice and counsel of the learned and expert physician prescribing many fit things to his patient', prescribe similar remedies to patients, for money, without adjusting the remedy to the individual or the illness. The five parts discuss the nature and number of fevers, the inflammation of the spirits caused by fevers (without putrefaction), the ‘fever putrida’, and the ‘fever hectick’ (caused by unnatural heat). The whole work is presented as a series of charts illustrating the taxonomy of fevers, from general to specific, e.g., tertian, synochus putrida, ‘fever causon’ (‘the hottest burning fever continua’), epiola, lyparia, etc. Each chart provides a definition, taxonomy, the causes, signs, prognostic and cure. Several of the fevers mentioned seldom appear in manuals of general pathology, and if they do, not in such detail. Edwards highlights the fevers that were most dangerous and often led to death, making his charts interesting evidence for our knowledge of mortality causes in C17 England. The section on ‘fever pestilence’ lists as causes ‘God’s hand to punish sin’, ‘venomous ayre’ and ‘corrupt air/bad humours’, the prognostic being ‘death for the most part’, except in very few cases, and the cure being ‘submit thee to God, acknowledge your sins with hearty repentance’, as well as ‘order, diet and physical exercise’. A fascinating work, unusually structured and detailed.