All that I or any man needs to know on medicine - John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery and Dr Edward Barry
In the Kirkpatrick Special Collection in
Dun’s library there are four books which once belonged to John Boyle, 5th
Earl of Cork and Orrery. Born in 1707, John Boyle was a friend and correspondent of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. He also published literary works, including a translation of the Letter of Pliny the younger. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the four books we have from Boyle’s library are all medical texts, with two works written by Edward Barry, and presented by him to Boyle.
Edward Barry was born in Cork in 1698; he
received a BA from Trinity College, Dublin, before studying for his MA at the
University of Leyden. Barry returned to Cork where he established a practice.
It was during his time in Cork that Barry became acquainted with Boyle. In 1726
Barry published his first book On a
consumption of the lungs, a copy of which he presented in person to Boyle on
28th July 1732.
Boyle and Barry corresponded for many years, and the
surviving letters from Barry to Boyle also give some insight into Barry’s
medical treatments. In May 1736 Barry writes to Boyle that
‘I
was mad enough to go to Kinsale last Wednesday and return the same day. I
inflamed my blood by this unusual exercise and took cold. By being twice
blooded, watergrule and confinement, I am now free from any complaint of
consequence’.
Late the same month Barry again comments on
his health
‘By
three times bleeding and applying Cantharides (the secretions of blister
beetles) I am entirely free from Fever, and have but weak remains of my cough,
but still confine my self to milk morning and evening, and a total abstinence
from wine.’
In 1739 Barry moved to Dublin, Boyle
approved this step and gave Barry some advice, he recommended Barry to set up
his own carriage on moving to Dublin as
‘a
chariot seems not only necessary if you have great business, but more so if you
have less than your skill entitles you to ... the proud, the rich and the vain
(a numerous and mighty generation) will scorn to send for a physician who has
not chariot to grace the outside of
their portal’.
Barry was certainly successful on moving to
Dublin, he became a Fellow of College of Physicians in 1740 and was elected
President in 1749. Five year later he was elected Regius Professor of Physic in
Trinity College. In 1759 he published his second book A Treatise on the three different digestions, and discharges of the
human body. As with his previous publication he presented a copy to his
friend Boyle, in which Boyle wrote the following;
‘This
is the first book of physic that I ever read. It may very well be the last,
because to me it seems to contain all that I or any other man need to know of
medicine, and the nature and state of the human body. The style is excellent
and elegant. Much learning is properly diffused throughout the whole. Nor can I
possibly express the pleasure I have received, in beholding the noble flight,
which my friend who is a rara avis, has made, eagle like, into the highest
regions of fame’.
Although glowing in its praise for Barry
and his work there is a, possible unintended, sideswipe at Barry – as it seems
that Boyle never read the early medical work his friend presented to him!
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| Bookplate of John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery |