Doctor John Hall
Articles about John Hall elsewhere on the Internet
- Dr. John
Hall -- a short biography from The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
- Hall's
Croft, the home of Dr. John Hall
- Herbal
Medicine in Shakespeare's England -- from Dr. John Hall's Case
Studiesby Dr. Michael Tierra L.AC., O.M.D.
- William
Shakespeare's Will
-
John Hall at Queens College by Iain Wright
See also
- The Shakespeare
Birthplace Trust
Books about John Hall
John Hall and his Patients
The Medical Practice of Shakespeare's Son-in-Law
By Joan Lane with Medical Commentary by Melvin Earles
John Hall, William Shakespeare's son-in-law, was an eminently
successful Stratford physician of the early seventeeth century.
His surviving medical case notes for the years 1611-35 describe
how he treated 155 patients of all classes, from aristocrat to
pauper, the majority within a 15-mile radius of Stratford. He
recorded symptoms, medications and the outcomes of his attentions,
providing a rare picture of provincial medical practice in Stuart
England as well as interesting details on persons close to Shakespeare.
This new edition comprises a facsimile of an early printed version
of Hall's Select Observiatons with facing commentary on
patients and their treatments. This, and an extended introduction,
concentrates on identifying the patients Hall attended (two-thirds
are given detailed profiles for the first time) and interpreting
and explaining Hall's treatment in the context of medical practice
in his time.
Joan Lane, MA, PhD, FSA, formerly a Wellcome Research Fellow,
is Senior Teaching Fellow in modern British, local and medical
history at the University of Warwick. She has contributed numerous
articles to books and journals and is the author of Apprenticeship
in England, 1600-1914.
Melvin Earles, MSc, PhD, FRPharmS, studies history and
philosophy of science at University College, London. He has contributed
articles to books and journals on the history of pharmacopoeia
and medical prescribing.
ISBN 0 7509 1094 1 378pp Sutton Publishing
£14.99 paperback 1996
Dr. John Hall's Casebook
Dr. James Cooke translated Hall's casebook from Latin into English and
published it. In his introduction, Cooke gives an account of his interview
with Susanna and describes how he obtained the manuscript:
...to see the Books left by Mr. Hall. After a view of them, she told me
she had some Books left, by one that professed Physick, with her Husband,
for some mony. I told her, if I liked them, I would give her the mony
again; she brought them forth, amongst which there was this with another
of the Authors, both intended for the Presse. I being acquainted with Mr.
Hall's hand, told her that one or two of them were her Husband's and
shewed them her; she denyed, I affirmed, till I perceived she begun to be
offended. At last I returned her the mony.
From an edition of Hall's case-book, we read:
"As the notes were in abbreviated Latin, Cooke sent them to London to 'an
able doctor' to obtain an opinion about publishing them. The opinion
offered was that the abbreviated Latin would cause the translator some
difficulty. Cooke, however, had some 'spare hours' and a conviction of
their worth for he set about translating Hall's condensed Latin. This he
accomplished with the help of Hall's apothecary, Richard Court, and in
1657 one of the notebooks appeared in print" (Harriet Joseph,
Shakespeare's Son-in-Law, [1964], 31).
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