A small manuscript that contains a small number of clinical reports and a much larger synopsis morborum. The reports are dated 1791-1792 but there is no date assigned to the synopsis morborum, although it seems likely to be contemporary to the writing of the reports. The volume was allocated the reference D 412 as part of the Manchester Medical Society's library viz. their 1890 catalogue, but there is little additional information about its provenance. The name 'Mr Whaley Hornby' is written on f.184r but it is not certain who this refers to or if this is the creator.
Folios 1-8 are smaller than the rest of the volume and contain an index to the synopsis morborum. This is followed by a number of clinical reports on ff.10-32, which are partially paginated. There are 7 individuals dealt with in total who, with their ages, are Margaret McKay (20), Jenny Urquhart (10 months), Isabel Anderson (34), Jane Patterson (22), Susan McVeil (45), Mary Kennedy (45), and Thomas Kennedy (16). The diagnoses given for them are hysteria, diarrhoea, typhus, scarlatina anginos [scarlet fever], asthma & dyspnoea, dysentery, and fever.
The synopsis morborum covers ff.33-184 beginning on the recto of f.34 and running through the rest of the manuscript on the recto of each folio, bearing the original pagination pp.1-151. The text then continues back through the volume, written upside down on the verso of each folio from f.184 to f.33 and bearing the original pagination pp.152-303. Folios 78-89 have been bound the wrong way round, most likely as a result of the modern rebinding. For each medical condition described the writer gives a thorough description of its characteristics and presentation, possible causes, prognosis, and possible treatments or cures.
The conditions described in the manuscript as set out in the index are as follows: asthma, apoplexia [stroke], adynamia, aphtha, acute rheumatism, atrophia, colica, cholera morbus, cynanche, cystitis, chronic rheumatism, catarrhus, chorea, diarrhoea, diabetes, dropsy, dyspoenia, dyspnoea, dysentery, dyspepsia, enteritis, erysipelas, epistaxis, epilepsy, framboesia [yaws], typhus fever, intermittent fever, gastritis, gout, gonorrhoea, hysteria, hydrophobia [rabies], hydrothorax, hydrometra, hepatitis, haemorrhagia, haemoptysis, haemorrhoids, haematamesis, haematuria, hydrocephalus, hypochondria, intumescentia [swelling], jaundice, pneumonic inflammation, leucorrhoea, mania, melancholia, miliaria, menorrhagia, nephritis, ophthalmia, oneirodynia [sleep wake disorders], pertussis [whooping cough], pyrosis [heartburn], pneumatosis, psora, phrenitis [delirium], pestis, pemphigus, phthisis [tuberculosis, pulmonary], palpitatis, rickets, rheumatism, rubeola [measles], raphania, syncope, scrofula [tuberculosis, lymph node], syphilis, scorbutus [scurvy], synocha, synochus [fever], scarlatina [scarlet fever], tabes, tympanitis [otitis media], tinea capitis, tetanus, urticaria, variola [smallpox], varicella, and vesania.
There are liberal references throughout to the work a practice of William Cullen (1710-1790), who first published his Synopsis Noslogiae Methodicae in 1769. There are also passing references to the works of John Gregory (1724-1773), George Baker (1722-1809), Richard Warren (1731-1797), Anthony Fothergill (1735-1813), Thomas Arnold (1742-1816), William Withering (1741-1799), Percivall Pott (1714-1788), Benjamin Bell (1749-1806), John Hunter (1728-1793), William Heberden (1710-1801), Ebeneezer Gilchrist (1707-1774), Richard Mead (1673-1754), and Thomas Willis (1621-1675).