January 14,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
561 
“ANDREW BOORDE, 
of pijfjsgclje Doctor.” 
In all Mr. luce’s ‘ Century of Old Books,’—we 
speak with reservation, in tliat we are only partially 
acquainted even with their titles as yet,—there may 
possibly not be found one more edifying and amusing 
than a volume recently issued by the Early English 
Text Society, containing a reprint of some of the 
principal works of Dr. Andrew Boorde.* But apart 
from general interest or antiquarian value, this book 
lias a peculiar claim on the notice of those to whom 
familiarity with medicines and dietary in the nine¬ 
teenth century affords common meeting ground with 
an exponent of the theory and practice of the six¬ 
teenth in the same particulars. 
Of Andrew Boorde himself not much is known. 
Some of our readers may perhaps not even recog¬ 
nize liis name, others probably will know nothing 
more than the ill-natured tradition that he was 
a court physician in Henry the Eighth’s time, 
in whose wandering habits and strange modes of 
pursuing his avocation the word “ Merry Andrew,” 
as applied to the odd being, half mountebank half 
quack doctor, still sometimes seen at a country fair, 
had its origin. Mr. Furnivall tells us something 
more, but not half as much as we should like to 
know. 
We gather from the summary prefacing the re¬ 
prints, that he was bom some time before the year 
1490, that he was brought up at Oxford, and ad¬ 
mitted, whilst still under age, as a Carthusian 
monk. He appears to have been “ dispensed ” of 
his vows in 1521, in order to be made Suffragan 
Bishop of Chichester, and to have made use of his 
liberation by going abroad to study medicine. During 
succeeding years lie made several foreign pilgri¬ 
mages, extending his travels much further than was 
common in those days, (to all the universities and 
approved schools within the precinct of Christen¬ 
dom, he himself says,) and in 1530 we find him prac¬ 
tising and studying medicine at Glasgow. After 
his last Continental tour Boorde settled at Win¬ 
chester, and probably spent the remainder of liis 
days partly in that city, where he had amassed some 
property, and partly in London. His end could 
hardly have been a happy one. Accused by liis 
enemies of immorality, he was imprisoned in the 
Eleet, and the last information we have concerning 
him is found in his will, dated from his place of 
confinement, April 25, 1549. 
Mr. Furnivall’s first quotations are from the ‘ Bre- 
uyary.’ Their phraseology is delightfully quaint, 
and they serve to give us an idea both of Boorde’s 
theories as to the origin of various distempers and 
* The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge 
made by Andrew Borde of Physyche Doctor ( 1547 ).— A 
Compendyous Regyment or A Dyetary of Helth made 
in Mountpyllier, compyled by Andrewe Boorde of Phy¬ 
syche Doctour ( 1542 ).— Barnes in the Defence of the 
Bkrds : aTreatyse made, answerynge the Treatyse of Doctor 
Borde upon Berdes (1542 or 3 ). 
Edited, with a Life of Andrew Boorde and large Extracts 
from his Breuyary, by F. J. Furnivall, M.A., Trin. Hall, 
Camb. 
Lon don : Published for the Early English Text Society, 
N. Trubner and Co. 1870 . 
Third Series, No. 29. 
his actual practice as a physician. The specimens 
selected by the editor generally refer to psychological 
disorders, and the treatment in these cases is based 
upon hygiene rather than medicine. Still there are 
a number of sections devoted to material ills, such as 
itch, palsy, asthma, stone, chilblains, excoriations, 
and sundry cutaneous affections, of which the follow¬ 
ing may be taken as a specimen :— 
Boorde s treatment of Itch : — A good pair of Nails. 
“ 11 The . 292 . Chapitre doth shewe of Itchynge. Prurigo 
is the latin word. In Engtyshe it is named itching of a mans 
body, skyn, or fleshe, 
H The cause of this impedimente. 
H This impediment doth come of corrupcion of euyll 
bloud, the which wolde be out of the fleshe ; it may also 
come of fleume myxt with corrupt bloud, the which doth 
putrifie the fleshe and so consequently the skyn. 
A remedy. 
This I do aduertise euery man for this matter to ordeyne 
or prepare a good payre of nayles to crache and clawe and to 
rent & teare the skynne and the fleshe, that the corrupt 
bloud maye runne out of the fleshe ; and vse than purgacions 
and stuphes & sweates; and beware, reuerberate not the 
cause inwarde with no oyntment, nor clawe not the skyn 
with fyshye fyngers, but washe the handes to bedwarde.” — 
P. 97 . 
Or tlie following:— 
Boorde's treatment of Palsy. 
“ Fyrst, vse a good dyet, and eate no contagious 
meates; and yf nede be vse clysters, and anoynt the body 
with the oyles of Laury and Camomyll; but whether the 
Palsy be vniuersal or perticuler, I do anoynte the body with 
the oyle of Turpentine compounde w T ith Aqua Vite, and vse 
frications or rubbynges with the handes, as one wolde rub 
with grece an olde payre of Botes, not hurtynge the skyn nor 
the pacient. And I do gyue the pacient Treacle with the 
pouder of Peper or els Mitridatum with Peper; or els take of 
Diatriapiperion. And if one wyll, he may rub the pacient 
with the rotes of Lylyes, brayed or stamped; after that use 
dry stuphes as the pacient is able to abyde. Or els, take 
a Foxe, with the skynne and all the body quartered, and 
with the herte, lyuer and lunges, and the fatnes of the in- 
tray les, stones and kidnes, sethe it longe in runnynge water 
with Calamynt and Balme and Carawayes, and bath the 
pacient in the water of it; and the smell of a Foxe is good 
for the Palsy.’’—P. 99 . 
He does not approve of sending for tlie “ duly 
qualified medical man ’ ’ for small ailments, but trusts 
much to nature. For instance, speaking ot some 
affection of tlie eyes, lie says,— 
“ I m yght here shewe of many salubriouse medecines, but 
the best medecine that I knowe is to lette the matter alone, 
and medle nat with it, but were before the eyes a pece of 
blacke sarcenet and eate neyther garlycke nor onyons nor 
drynke no wynes nor stronge ale, and it will were away.’’ 
P. 101 . 
He lias, nevertheless, a genuine belief in physic 
properly administered, and his prescriptions often 
show a definiteness of purpose which, if we may 
judge by samples we have recently had to print 
in our pages, the modern prescriber might at times 
imitate with advantage. 
The ‘ First Boke of the Introduction ot Know¬ 
ledge’ hardly concerns us, and though highly enter¬ 
taining, we must pass it by with tlie editor s l-emaiL, 
that “It is the original of Murrays and all other 
