W., O., Professour in Physicke and Chirurgery. An epitome (sic) of . . . secrets ... WOOD (OWEN). An Alphabetical Book of Physical Secrets, for . . . diseases most predominant in the body of man. [With a commendatory preface by A. Read.] FEW MS. NOTES. J. Norton for W. Edmonds: London, 1639. 8°. 1038. d. 36. (6.) The first and fourth of these entries require no comment. The second, putting aside the misprints, is inaccurate in ascribing the book to A. Reade, and ignoring the possibility and, as a matter of fact, the actuality of the identity of O. W. and Owen Wood, and of "An Alphabetical Book" and "An Epitomie." How the cataloguer missed that it is hard to say; possibly his vision was dimmed by some cataloguing rule; but the two volumes might have been compared and the grounds for passing over Owen Wood's claim to the authorship and for ascribing it to Dr. Read should have been considered. Some doubt seems ultimately to have arisen, for the authorship of Dr. Read is queried in the later entry under W., O.; but, again, if there could be any doubt in the matter at all, the question should have been fully examined and the allotment to Read finally cancelled. What further strikes one in these entries is the fact that while there is a reference from Read to Wood (Owen) and to W., O., there is none from Wood (Owen) to W., O., or from W., O., to Wood (Owen), which would seem much more requisite and obvious. 53. Dr. Alexander Read himself may now be introduced. He compiled a book in the same style as the "Epitomie" of Wood, which ought not to be forgotten here. MOST | EXCELLENT | And approved | Medicines & Remedies | For most Diseases and Maladies | Incident to Man's Body, | Lately compiled and extracted out of the Originals of the most Famous and best Experienced Physicians both in | England and other Countries, | By A. R. Doctor in Phyfick deceased. | And fince revised by an able Practitioner in the fame Science, and now Publifhed for the univerfall good and benefi (sic) of | this Common-wealth. | Vita fine Valetudine Odium eft, non Vita. | Ecclef. (sic) 38. 1, 2, 4. | Honour the Physician with that honour that is | due unto him, because of Neceffity: for the LORD hath created him. For of the most | HIGH cometh healing. | N.S. VOL. V. PT. III. L The LORD hath created Medicines of the Earth, | and he that is Wife will not abhor them. I LONDON, Printed by J. C. for George Latham | Junior, and are to be fold at the figne of the Bishops head in St. Pauls Church- | yeard 1652. | Small 8°. Pp. [16] 144. Small border round the title. "The Epistle to the Reader," which is a protest against fatalism and an exhortation to use every means known to preserve oneself in health and to combat disease, is signed with the initials T. A., who has used the same motto from Ecclesiasticus as T. C. did in 1595. 54. This Dr. Alexander Read, then, was dead by 1652, and it may not be out of place here to point out certain errors and contradictions which have found their way into the current biographies of him. * The first confusion was introduced by Granger, who calls him a Scotch Physician and says: Dr. (AlexandeR) READE. A small head by Gaywood; in the title to the "Secrets of Art and Nature," fol. 1660. This is entirely wrong; but the biographical notice which he adds is correct enough, so far as it goes. Granger's error was copied by Henry Bromley,† whose account runs thus: ALEXANDER READE, M. D. Scotic. A small oval, in the title page to his "Secrets of Art and Nature," 1660, fol. . . . Gaywood. There is scant room here for more mistakes. He was not a Scottish M.D.; "The Secrets of Art and Nature," 1660, are not "his," but belong to Hans Jakob Wecker. The portrait there given is not of Dr. Alexander Read, but of Dr. R. Read, the translator of Wecker's book, who wrote and signed a preface to it, and published it nineteen years after the accepted date of Alexander's death. * A Biographical History of England, London, 1769, I. ii., p. 482. 5th ed. 1824, III., p. 120. + A Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits from Egbert the Great to the Present Time, London, 1793, p. 102. Lowndes is no better, for to Alexander Read he assigns "Secrets of Art and Nature," 1660, folio, and adds: "With a portrait of the author in the title-page by Gaywood." Yet he gives a reference to WECKER, John, under which name, however, there is no allusion to Read, or to the book being a translation, but there is mention of "a frontispiece containing portrait by Gaywood," of whom is not specified. * Robert Watt gives a list of Read's anatomical and surgical works, and includes among them: The Secrets of Physicke and Chirurgery. Lond. 1651. 12mo. Most excellent of Art and Nature. 1660. fol. This last treatise is quoted also under WECKERUS, Johannes Jacobus,' as being the only one of his in English, but there is no reference to the translator, so that one cannot tell whether Watt thought them the same or not. Under 'WOOD, Owen,' he quotes: "An Alphabetical Book of Physical Secrets against most Diseases. Lond. 1639. 8vo.," again without reference to Read, or to the later reprints of 1651. Allibone † simply condenses Watt's list of Read's works and copies the entry about Owen Wood. Weckerus is not mentioned. But under Reid, Alexander,' he has the following: "Physician to Charles I., of the same family as Thomas Reid, the philosopher, pub. some forgotten works on medicine and surgery," unaware, apparently, that he had already given a list of them under Read. He makes no reference to a portrait. As to the works being forgotten, surely it is the business of the author of a dictionary of English Literature to rescue them from that very oblivion he seems to think they deserve. 55. The most recent and fullest account of Read or Reid is that given in the Dictionary of National Biography, but unfortunately in it are repeated the statements of Granger, Lowndes, and others, which are so inaccurate. One or two points in this article may be considered. * Bibliotheca Britannica, Edinburgh, 1824, Authors, II., Read, 794 a, b; Weckerus, 956 b; Wood, 980 y. + A Critical Dictionary of English Literature, Philadelphia, 1870, II., p. 1751; and London, 1871, III., p. 2821, for Wood, and 1870, II., p. 1763, for Reid, The dates assigned to Read are 1586?-1641, and it is said that "he died in October 1641, his will being proved 24 Oct. 1641." This looks definite enough, and it is something to start from, but it does not tally so well with other statements as one could desire. It seems curious that so much as eleven years after his death, in 1652, that event should still be referred to; but possibly, "deceased," the word employed, was equivalent to the modern expression "late." It corresponds, however, with the expression in the preface of Owen Wood's "Epitomie," 1651, already quoted, where he is called the Dr. Read, "who writ so many things of Physicke and Chirurgery." As to his birth it is placed, in the article, about 1586. That date, however, does not agree at all with what he himself says. If he died in 1641, and was born about 1586, he would be about 55 years old at his death. But in his address to the Reader, dated 5th August, 1634, prefixed to his Chirurgical Lectures, delivered in "Chirurgeans Hall" in 1632, 1633, and 1634, and published at London in 1635, he remarks that he had practised "Physicke and Chirurgerie now 42 yeares." If that be right, and he was born in 1586, he must have begun practice about the year 1590-92, when he was no more than four years of age! Supposing, however, that he was 21 when he began to practise that would place his birth about 1571-73, and would make him about 63 in 1632-34, and a man of 70 at his death. If he were still alive in 1655, he would be 85, which corresponds still better with the phrase he uses about the running out of the sands, than his death at the age of 55. There is another difficulty connected with the date 1641, which I am unable at this moment to remove from want of the necessary facts. It is this. In the 3rd edition of Read's Manual of Anatomie, 1642, the following passage occurs at the beginning of the address to the Reader: Courteous Reader, Now I prefent to Thee the third edition of the Manual of Anatomy, which fhall be the last that fhall be published in my lifetime, which is not far from its period. The Hour-glasse hasteneth, and but few fands remain unrun. The first edition of this book was published in 1634, and this address is not contained in it. It is wanting also in the 4th edition, 1650, but it is present in the 5th, 1655, with the change of "third" to "fifth" so as to make the address fit the edition, irrespective of the author's being alive or dead. It is wanting also in the 1659 edition. To settle this point one would need to ascertain the date of the 2nd edition, and whether or not it contains the passage just quoted. If the date is before 1641, and the passage is present, then no difficulty arises in connection with his death in 1641, but if the passage be not contained, and if it do not appear till the 3rd edition in 1642, there are two dates which at present are conflicting. So far I have not been able to examine the 2nd edition.* It may be remarked that in the various editions of this work, subsequent to 1641, there is nothing whatever to indicate that the author was dead. On the contrary they all appear to have been revised and edited by himself. 56. Now, still assuming 1641 as the year of his death, how is it possible for him to have written "An Epitomie of Secrets" in 1651, or "The *[January 1907. I have found the second edition in the British Museum [548. b. 5.]: The manuall of the Anatomy or dissection of the body of man. . . Enlarged and now methodically digested into 6. Books. By Alexander Read, Doctor of Physick, a Fellow of the Physitians College of London, and a brother of the Worshipfull Company of the Barber-Chirurgeons. London, Printed by J. H. for F. Constable, and are to be sold at his shop under Saint Martins Church near Ludgate. 1638. 12°. Pp. [12 including the engraved title], 574, [1. I blank]. 5 engraved plates. The engraved title represents five doctors in birettas at a table on which is lying a dissected body. The centre figure with the fur-trimmed gown, lace cuffs and piped collar, has a pointed beard, and, with a wand in his hand, is apparently giving a demonstration. This is said to be a portrait of Read, and the others are presumably barber-chirurgeons. Represented as attached to the front of the table by two large nails is a human skin with the face and hands, and on it is printed the fly-title and the date 1638. The dedication to King Charles is in Latin, and is dated: Londini 4 Calend. Octob. Anni ab exhibito in carne Messia, supra millesimum sexcentesimum tricesimi septimi. It is signed: Alexander Reidus Scoto-Britannus. There is no other preface, or address to the Reader, so that the passage above quoted about the running out of the sands does not appear in this second edition. Consequently the difficulty remains of reconciling Read's death in 1641 with the third edition of his Anatomy printed in 1642, containing a preface obviously by himself, but without any indication that he had died in the meantime.] [See "Addenda," § 55.] |