BIB_ID
416216
Accession number
MA 1856.34
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1832 February 24.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 22.9 x 18.4 cm
Notes
Place of writing taken from the postmark.
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel with seal and postmarks: "J.H. Green, Esqre / &c / 46 Lincoln's Inn Fields."
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel with seal and postmarks: "J.H. Green, Esqre / &c / 46 Lincoln's Inn Fields."
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows, with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Describing his health, diet and medical treatments over the past few days; saying that after a night of "tape-worm Sleep, i.e. made up of many joints," on Tuesday morning he had an appetite and ate "two chops with much gust"; asking for Green to bring him a packet of "Perryisian Pens" (a reference to the pens manufacturer James Perry); saying that as soon as he began to digest his breakfast, "a storm of agitation and nervous excitement rushed on me, head as well as Bowels, and from Noon till past six o'clock I never once sate down, but continued pacing to the tune of my own prayers & groans from the window of my own to that in the Room opposite!"; saying that in the evening he took a "Bed-air-bath" for an hour and describing the process and the effect; saying that the air-bath made him sweat so profusely that he soaked through his "Under-waist-coat & Breast-plate," as well as his night-cap: "And Harriet said, that she had never seen a Blanket in such a state, as that which was between my body & the Mattrass"; saying that he slept comfortably on Tuesday night, but on Wednesday morning "I sneezed violently, & perceived a disagreeable fever-smell in my Nostrils"; adding "I proceeded, however, after the operation of the Enema, to divide my daily dose of L. into three parts, instead of two as usual. Mr Gillman altogether discouraged my proposal to DIMINISH it -- and instead of the fatal chops took two or three thin slices of Bread & Butter with my two cups of Tea -- then at 3 o'clock a small Basin of thin yet strong Beef & Veal Soup, and at half-past 5 a few spoonfuls of Bread Pudding -- and I went to bed, without having taken the third division of the Laud. Dose"; describing a "Mustard Leg-bath" he took the next day and how good it made his legs look and feel; mentioning an article in the Wednesday (February 22) edition of the Morning Chronicle containing the opinions of a Dr. Kirk on the appearance of cholera in England and calling it "the first sensible, and philosophic Article, I have yet seen on the subject -- and why? -- Plain as a Pike-staff. It is in substance the very same that you have heard from me, that is, from myself"; saying that he feels he could explain the progress and development of the cholera epidemic and giving his thoughts on the matter in detail; discussing the qualities of viruses, how they are transmitted and the effects of environment on the spread of disease; describing the body's response to infection; concluding "The short of it is, Mr. Green! that unless you bring me some Perryisian Pens, you must not expect to receive a legible scrawl from / Your affectionate / S.T. Coleridge."
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