Letter #10, Post #25

Tuesday 29 May 2012
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "It is now saturday Eveng but I wrote the cheif of this in the morning.-My Mother has not been down at all today; the Laudanum made her sleep a good deal, & upon the whole I think she is better;-I shall be able to be more positive on this subject I hope tomorrow." - Jane Austen, Saturday 27-Sunday 28 October 1798

From reading these letters the first time I thought Mrs. Austen might have been a bit of a hypochondriac, but Jane Austen does seem really concerned about her at this time. It seems the way medicine was back then if you came down sick with anything it could take you out. It seems their only method of treatment for any illness was leeches, Laudanum and bleeding. I am just not sure I would have called for a doctor back then. Give me some dandelion tea, a little sympathy, and leave me alone.

Here is a quote from a letter Eliza de Feuillide, Jane Austen's cousin and Henry Austen's wife, wrote about her experience with leeches. This is from the book Jane Austen's 'Outlandish Cousin' The Life and Letters of Eliza de Feuillide by Deirdre Le Faye.

                                                          Eliza de Feuillide

Written 7 November 1796 to "My dear Cousin", whom she names at the end of the letter as Phillida, (Philadelphia Walter?)

"...At length the Doctor came, and the grave face which he put on sufficiently alarmed me - He told me the mercurial ointment did not agree with me, and desired I would immediately discontinue it, and that very evening apply four Leeches to the Swelling Not a moment he said was to be lost, for there was an unpleasant pulsation in the swelling which he trusted the Leeches would remove; at the same time however that his Looks and manner frightened me, his words afforded some Comfort for he said he made little doubt of curing me but that it was likely to be a tedious Business. A written Prescription for Draughts to be taken Night & Morning he also gave me and with this I set off to my Apothecarys in Pall Mall, both in order to bespeak the Leeches & have my Drugs made up-

"The idea of these Leeches was very terrible to me, but I mustered up what courage I could, and the odious Beasts were stuck on - They obligingly staid with me above two Hours, and Sr. Walter who saw me again the next day was well satisfied with their effect, tho' I could not see any apparent difference in the Swelling - He desired me to continue my Medicines, and in the course of a few days the Leeches were again applied. They then favored me with their Company still longer than the first time, but they had not been taken off ten minutes when the places where they had been applied, and indeed the whole side of my neck up to my ear, swelled and inflamed in so terrible a manner, that myself and those about me were exceedingly alarmed, and I accordingly dispatched an Express for my Doctor, who soon quieted our fears, by an assurance that what I experienced was a very common occurrence, for that it often happens, and there is no foreseeing or preventing the circumstance that the bite of the Leech is venomous. He ordered Bread & Milk Poultices, and after feeling for a week as if I had been stung by four Wasps, the consequences of this accident subsided." - Poor Eliza!

There you have it, straight from someone who experienced it. OOOh and ouch, a little amoxicillin would have been greatly appreciated, would it not?

I hope you enjoy your day today!
Terrie