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Click on the images on this page to enlarge them (they
will open in a new window).
 Dr Jeremiah Cliff's Memento
Mori (p364-28-4)
For 30 years, until his own death in 1743, Dr Jeremiah Cliff
kept a record of everyone who died in Tenterden, giving their
names, ages, dates of death, the illnesses they died of and who
their doctors were. Altogether he recorded more than 1200 deaths.
In many cases the cause of death he assigns is hard to interpret in
terms of modern medical knowledge, but certain trends are clear.
For example, there was a high rate of infant mortality, many young
women died in childbirth or from consumption and there was a large
number of deaths from fever and related illnesses.
Dr Cliff and his son, another Jeremiah, treated more than 300 cases
between them, but Dr Cliff is described as an apothecary in his
will and probably had no formal medical training. The illustration
shows his title page, decorated with a skull and cross bones and a
pick axe and shovel. Memento Mori is Latin and means literally
"remember to die".
 Example from a surgeon's case
book, 1737 (h-b-15-16-tabxxxviil)
One of several illustrated case studies from the 10th edition of
William Cheselden's 'The Anatomy of the Human Body', published in
1773. Cheselden (1688-1752) was a surgeon and anatomist who
lectured on anatomy in the early 18th century. The book was a
student's manual providing basic information about physiology and
surgical techniques. It was extremely popular and went through 13
editions. As assistant surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, Cheselden
developed a new and successful technique for the removal of bladder
stones and he was also a highly respected eye surgeon.
The case illustrated here concerns Samuel Wood, a miller, whose arm
and shoulder blade were torn off by the machinery of the mill in
1737. He was treated at St Thomas's Hospital in London. Cheselden
also uses the illustration to describe his technique of
amputation.
 Illustration of surgeon's
instruments and trepanning, 1639 (h-g-3-22)
John Woodall (1570-1643) was a member of the Barber-Surgeon's
company and was appointed as the first surgeon-general of the East
India Company in 1613. In 1617 he published 'The Surgeon's Mate or
A Treatise… of the Surgion's Chest', a medical textbook aimed at
young sea surgeons. It describes the instruments and medicines for
a surgeon's chest and their uses, and also contains sections on
surgical problems and serious medical conditions. It includes a
discussion of scurvy, for the prevention and cure of which Woodall
prescribed 'the juice of vegetables and fruits'.
This illustration is from the revised edition of 'The Surgeon's
Mate or Military & Domestique Surgery', published in 1639, and
shows the instrument Woodall designed for trepanning, or cutting
holes in skulls, which was used for the next 300 years. The text on
the opposite page lists the equipment needed by the ship's barber,
'if the Surgeon's Mate cannot trimme men'.
 Advertisement for J. Russel,
physician and oculist of London, c.1680 (cc-m1-1)
This advertisement, preserved among the archives of Canterbury
City Council, supposedly illustrates successful operations carried
out by J. Russel, whose surgery was near Grays Inn in London. Some
of the illustrations are extremely gruesome and it is hard to
imagine what it must have been like to experience the removal of a
cataract or tumour in the days before anaesthetics or antibiotics!
There is also a portrait of Russel, flanked by illustrations of the
furnace and laboratory where he prepared his medicines. Although
Russel describes himself as a physician, he seems to have practised
as a surgeon and apothecary too. As well as advertising his skill
as a surgeon, the broadsheet describes the properties of his
'spirit of scurvy-grass' which, if the advertisement is to be
believed, could cure almost anything!
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