Method in the Madness
John Hall: The Manuscript
John Hall recorded 178 of his cases in a small notebook known as his ‘Little Book of Cures’. The text was written entirely in Latin and was likely composed between 1634 and his death in 1635. These cases all have a successful outcome, although whether those patients were in fact ‘cured’ or merely relieved of some of their symptoms we cannot know. He may have been preparing his manuscript for publication. There is no record in the casebook of Hall having treated William Shakespeare although he does mention Susanna and Elizabeth.
Hall makes references throughout his text to the theory of diagnosis and treatment. His working library, those texts he regularly consulted, is thought to have contained some 43 volumes, mostly written in Latin. Hall seems to have borrowed recipes and medicines from these works and adapted them for his individual patients. He made regular use of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis (1618) and there is evidence that Hall had some familiarity with Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).
In the early 1640s the surgeon James Cooke (c. 1614 – c. 1694) purchased John Hall’s manuscript, along with a second volume of his notes. Cooke translated the text of the first volume from Latin to English, giving it the title Select Observations on English Bodies. First published in 1657, a second edition appeared in 1679 and a third in 1683. Cooke’s version omitted some of the original text and there were mistranslations and alterations. The second volume of Hall’s notes has disappeared. The ‘Little Book of Cures’ was owned in the 1700s by David Garrick, the man behind the Garrick Jubilee which celebrated Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon. It now belongs to the British Library.