Recipes, Recepts, Rx
by Helen Seager
Obed Macy’s entry into his personal journal for June 6, 1812, reads:
This morning Peter (Obed’s second son) arrived from Boston with Frederick Starbuck; he went out into the country to Doctr Stephen Jewett, in the Town of Rindge, New Hampshire, for the recovery of his health & tarried two weeks, where, it appears, he received considerable benefit.
Two years later, Obed’s third son, Reuben, visited the same doctor. He wrote to their parents in May of 1814, “I have been with the Doctor to visit the famous Monadnock Mountains.... I discovered Peter’s name on the top and have also added my own.” Apparently, Peter Macy’s “considerable benefit” enabled him to hike to the summit of New Hamphire’s Mount Monadnock and inscribe his name there.
Dr. Stephen Jewett (1764-1862) was typical of successful eighteenth and nineteenth century medical practitioners. He treated people in and around Rindge, NH and was called upon often for professional consultation in Boston and elsewhere. Reuben, on his visit to Jewett, wrote suggestions to his parents that Dr. Jewett make a trip to the island for to treat a number of patients there:
I wrote Peter to send particulars of his complaint if he wishes me to bring any medicine for him, the Doctor says he can send him something that will help him very much.... I have been trying to persuade the doctor to go to Nantucket in company with me but he says he has so much business here it would be difficult to leave home for so long; but if he was sent for, he would go.... The doctor generally charges one shilling per mile for travelling and if any of you should want him enough to send for him, I should be well pleased.
In another letter, Reuben writes, “(I)f I were as good a doctor as he is, I think (I would) not want a better fortune (.) (H)e clears from 4 to 10 dollars per day and does not charge 1/10 part so much as other doctors.
Formal medical education in the early nineteenth century was slight by modern standards: no academic prerequisites, no teaching hospitals, and any medical lectures were heard by students who chose them by purchase of a ticket. Medical practitioners at all levels learned primarily from informal apprenticeships with self taught but experienced practitioners. In 1800, Obed Macy wrote, “I(,) & 3 of our children, viz. Peter, Elizabeth and Mary, were inoculated for the Cow Pox by Dr. Gelston.”. Another general inoculation too place in 1811.
Four medical schools existed in the United States in 1800: University of Pennsylvania (1765), Columbia University (1767), Harvard (1782), and Dartmouth (1796). The Medical School of Maine was established at Bowdoin College in 1820 by that state’s first legislature after it became a state separate from Massachusetts. An early New Hampshire-born physician, Dr. Nathan Smith, treated patients in area of the upper Connecticut River valley, he founded Dartmouth Medical School and was instrumental in the founding of three other schools, leading historians to dub him “Johnny Appleseed of American medicine.” He also lectured at Harvard, Dartmouth, and at the Medical School of Maine.
Healing practitioners in various capacities gained experience from mentors. Dr. Smith would take aspiring healers with him on horseback rounds to treat far-flung patients. Ship captains were often the on-board bonesetters, surgeons, and dispensers of herbal and other remedies. Midwives learned from other midwives — or from their own mothers. Dr. Jewett from New Hampshire built a lucrative medical practice although he did not pursue professional medical training, such as it was. “He is best remembered for his patent medicines. His son, Stephen, Jr., located the main office of the Jewett Company in Boston.” Glass factories in Keene and Stoddard, NH, supplied bottles for “Celebrated Health Restoring Bitters.”
The labels stated that the bitters would cure chronic diseases, cancer, all disorders of the blood, skin and digestive organs, liver and kidney complaints, and many other disabilities. In fact, the label indicated that ‘all can be cured if within the power of medicine.’ These small bottles of bitters sold for 5O¢ each and were a huge success.
According to newspaper advertisements in 1850-55, Jewett also made Jewett’s Liniment for Headache, Jewett’s Nerve liniment, Jewett’s Pulmonary Elixir, Jewett’s Stimulating Liniment, Jewett’s Liniment for Couchs (sic) and Consumptions, and Jewett’s Liniment for Fever.
Reuben considered remaining to study with the Rindge doctor. He decided that “it would take 2 or 3 years before I should be able to practice”, and he still wouldn’t know enough Latin, so he returned to Nantucket. However, in 1814, he gathered material for a booklet, “Reuben Macy’s Book of Receipts, 1814.” It is reasonable to suppose that many of these “Receipts” came from Dr. Jewett. He also wrote, in his second letter to his parents from Rindge, “I wish thee to procure some red pepper seeds and plant in the garden, as it is one of the ingredients which I use.” In 1817, Obed Macy produced a collection of handwritten “Receipts for the cure of many diseases, collected from various sources, some of which by experience have proved beneficial in many cases, 4/9/1817” He made additions to the notebook up to 1842. Some of Obed’s receipts are the same as those found in his son’s collection. They included remedies for ailments and nuisances (e.g., bug repellant) and chemical mixtures for dyes, paint, and lubricants
Here are names of some “receipts” that interested Obed enough for him to record them in his journal:
- Method of dying blue in Africa (3/3/1803).
Several appeared in his journal entries in 1809:
- An infallible for Hooping Cough
- To cure Poison with running ivy
- A Prescription to cure Soft-Rheume
- A Cure for a sore scabby lip
8/20/1809: Composition of Cement
On the same page as the Cement recipe is one with an illegible name. The ingredients are tobacco, Hog’s Lard, and sulphur; the instructions are grim: “following up the above remedy as often as the patient can bear it, it has proved successful.”
Another group of receipts appeared in 1811.
- Receipt for a stubborn billious habit and constant pain in the stomach.
- A Cure for the Soft Rheume
- A Receipt to Cure Dropsy
On 9/16/1811 - “A suitable Coat for a House”, that is, house paint.
- 1 Barrel Turpentine
- 10 gal. whale oil
- 60 HH (hogsheads) Spanish brown
- 6 HH (hogsheads) Red Lead
Mix together & warm sufficient to lay it on with a brush.
Nowadays, the closest concept to the Receipt Collections of Obed and Reuben Macy might be a cook’s personal book of carefully collected recipes. Modern usage of words would point us to “receipt” as a written acknowledgment that a specified article or sum of money had been received as an exchange for goods or services, with the receipt often used as the title to the property obtained in the exchange. Today, we expect that a Book of Receipts to be a record of, for example, earnings or sales.
On the other hand, if a “recipe” is a “formula or prescription; a statement of the ingredients (and mode of procedure) necessary for the making of some preparation, especially in medicine and cookery,” as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, we would expect a cookbook to be a book of recipes, not receipts. The connection is that both words, and indeed the symbol Rx , all are derived from the Latin, “recipe”, which is the imperative singular form of the verb “take” – as in. “take two aspirin” or “take two cups of sugar.” We also hear usage such as “a recipe for success,” and “the day’s receipts.”
Understood broadly, the difference between the two words is that receipts taken in Restaurant Week on Nantucket would not be enhanced by dishes concocted from Obed’s and Reuben’s recipes.
Helen Seager has lived at 15 Pleasant Street year round and is an occasional writer or speaker on topics of history for island publications organizations. Her articles this summer are based on research in the NHA research library and elsewhere about residents and owners of 15 Pleasant Street.
