Dr. Hale’s Home Remedy and Recipe Book
Guests: Doug Sharp and Rich Geer
Description: Ever since Doug found this old book in his grandmother’s attic, it has been a personal project for him to preserve it and eventually publish it. Now, about 30 years later, he finally found enough resources for him to do it. This handwritten doctor’s handbook contains 361 recipts for pills, potions, remedies, liniment, puddings, spruce beer, ginger beer, mead, ice cream, and salves, written between 1844 and 1863. Some of the ingredients are written in code, and the book uses the old English apothecary system of weights and measures in common use until 1864. At that time, there were 12 ounces to a pound, 96 drachms to a pound, 288 scruples to a pound, and 5760 grains to a pound. This give a picture of the type of medicine and science used at the time of Darwin, and how much has changed in that field since them.