IO 
DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE. 
Elsewhere, in discussing cases of “ Chlorosis or Green Sick¬ 
ness in Womenkind ” which he had treated, Allen gives (p. 231) 
particulars of his treatment of the illness of Ray’s daughter Mary 
—the treatment which did not satisfy Ray and led to a partial 
break in the friendship between the two men, as noticed else¬ 
where. 14 He says :— 
“ But the most od and remarkable case was Mr. Ray’s daughter Mary, 
about 13 years old, [who] had a green sickness, but [she] was dark skinn’d 
so [it was] not discernible in the face. I sent them steel’d wine, but they 
neglected to give it. Three months after, it turn’d to a yellow Jaundys, 
and they would not bleed her, and it was difficult to know the remedy,, 
if Steele or Icteric, wch. would do. We had not time enough to try either 
long enough, much less both, so she dyd ; tho’ the Yellow Electuary with 
Chalybeats were wt. I would have given (that is, the Yellow Electuary 
on mornings and the Chalybeat Electuary in the afternoon and at night), 
but, tho’ she dyd in 48 hours, with a heavyness of head like a coma, it 
was evident by the case of her sister that the Jaundys here was only a 
symptom and that the cure of the Green Sickness was the thing ; for her 
sister, Mrs. Margaret, fell soon after ill exactly of the same and had a 
Jaundys and at my instance to Mr. Dale, who was then employed and 
at my direction, she was cured by steel’d wine.” 
In another part of the book (p. 145), we find a fuller and 1 
clearer account of the circumstances, already alluded to, 15 in 
which Charles (Rich) fourth Earl of Warwick (died 1673) had 
sought the assistance of Boyle, Ray, and the younger Van Hel- 
mont in the cure of his gout. After writing of the latter’s father’s 
method of treating gouty patients, Allen continues :—- 
“ But yet he \i.e. the elder Van Helmont] trusted himself to other vulgar 
medicines or simples ; for, of this, I had a proof The learned naturalist 
and philosopher and my friend and neighbour, Mr. Ray, known to the 
world by his Historia Plantaru lG and other writings, informed me that the 
Earle of Warwick (Charles, being the last), having a severe fit of the gout, 
sent to his brother by marryage, the great Mr. Boyl, to desire him to con¬ 
sult young Helmont, the son, about it (because his father speaks so much 
of the Coralline Secret), [he] being then in England. Mr. Boyl did so, 
and young Helmont’s answer was this :—that he would advise him to 
[use] what his father us’d to give eas to himself in the gout, wch. he was 
troubled with ; but, as to a cure, he assur’d Mr. Boyl he was certain his 
father had no such [thing], for he had it much himself ; but, for ease, he 
had recours to the common true Black Hellebor 17 , [for] wch. the Ear! 
sent to Mr. Ray to assist him in the getting, that he might not be impos’d 
upon. This Mr. Ray had from the Earle's and Mr. Boyl’s own mouth[s].’ 
14 See ante , xvi., pp. 151-152. 
15 See ante, xvi., p. 153. 
16 Historia Plantaruni, 3 vols., 1686-1704. 
17 Hcllebonts ni^er, the “ Christmas Rose.” 
