1666

Contents:

Rhachitis (June 4)

Weather diary (June 24)

Respirationis usus (unknown)

Morbus (unknown)

Rhachitis   (1666 June 4)

Location:   Bodleian Library, MS. Locke d. 9, p. 68.

Description:   Notes on a post-mortem examination on a child with rickets, dated June 4 [16]66, with the caption “Rhachitis.” The entry is in Locke’s hand and is initialed at the end.

Publications:

1. “Post-mortem examination on case of rickets performed by John Locke” / by Kenneth Dewhurst. // IN: British medical journal. – 1962:vol. 2:1466.
2. “Philosopher, pediatrician, pathologist? : John Locke’s thoughts on rhicketts and a missed case of Ebstain’s anomaly” / A. N. Williams, N. Wilson, R. Sunderland. // IN: Pediatric cardiology. – 30 (2009):192.

Discussions:   Dewhurst, publication #1 above.

Weather diary, Oxford and London June 1666-June 1683; Otes Dec 1691-May 1703   (1666 June 24)

Location:   Bodleian Library, MS. Locke d. 9, pp. 531-471 rev.

Description:   Observations on the weather, in Locke’s hand, with the title “Weather diary, Oxford and London June 1666-June 1683; Otes Dec 1691-May 1703.” Locke also entered an “Explication of my Register of the Air” on p. 544 rev. (opposite the back cover).

Publications:

1. [24 June 1666-30 June 1683:] “A register [of the weather] kept by Mr. Locke in Oxford,” // IN: The general history of the air, designed and begun by the Hon^ble Robert Boyle Esq; London, printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, … MDCXCII [1692]. Pages 104-132.
2. [9 December 1691-31 December 1692:] “A register of the weather for the year 1692, kept at Oates in Essex.” By Mr. John Locke. // IN: Philosophical transactions. For the month of April 1705. Numb. 298:1917-1937. Based on a copy by William Shaw [British Library, MS. Sloane 4039, ff. 261-270]
3. Writings on natural philosophy and medicine / John Locke ; edited by Peter Anstey and Lawrence Principe. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, forthcoming. – (The Clarendon edition of the works of John Locke)

“Respirationis usus”   [1666]

Location:   Public Record Office, London, PRO 30/24/47/2, ff. 71-74^v.

Description:   A Latin paper on the purpose of respiration, in Locke’s hand. According to Walmsley, it most likely dates between May and November 1666. The manuscript consists of two pieces of paper folded in half, the one inserted into the other, to form 8 pages. Fol. 71 contains only the title “Respirationis usus”; f. 71^v contains several questions for disputation. The outer sheet measures 206 × 156 mm; the inner sheet, 198 × 156 mm.

The manuscript is currently misbound in a volume in the Shaftesbury papers, the inner sheet bound back-to-front. The correct sequence is ff. 71^r, 71^v, 73^r, 73^v, 72^r, 72^v, 74^r, 74^v.

Publications:

1. “Locke’s essay on respiration” / Kenneth Dewhurst. // IN: Bulletin of the history of medicine. – 34 (1960):257-273. – The text appears on p. 270-273, and an English translation, “The purpose of respiration,” on p. 263-269. Dewhurst was not aware of the misbinding, and his transcription is out of order. His transcription is inaccurate and incomplete.
2. John Locke’s natural philosophy (1632-1671) / Jonathan Craig Walmsley. – Thesis (Ph.D.)–King’s College London, 1998. – p. 262-271.
3. [Latin text and English translation]: “John Locke’s ‘Respirationis usus’ : text and translation” / J. C. Walmsley and E. Meyer. // IN: Eighteenth-century thought. – 4 (2008):1-28.
4. Writings on natural philosophy and medicine / John Locke ; edited by Peter Anstey and Lawrence Principe. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, forthcoming. – (The Clarendon edition of the works of John Locke)

Discussions:   Dewhurst, publication #1 above; Walmsley, publication #2 above; J.R. Milton, “Locke at Oxford” (1994); describes the misbinding of the manuscript (p. 33n).

Morbus   [1666 or 1667]

Location:   British Library, Add. MS. 32,554, pp. 232-233, 237, 246, 248-250.

Description:   An unfinished entry in Locke’s hand in a medical commonplace book. The word “Morbus” appears in the margin at the head of the entry, as well as on each subsequent new page. Walmsley dates the entry between September 1666 and May 1667, based primarily on its reference to Boyle’s Origine of formes and qualities, which Locke was reading during that time.

Publications:

1. “Transcript of Locke’s ‘Morbus’ (c. 1666).” // IN: John Locke and medicine : a new key to Locke / by Patrick Romanell. – Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1984. – p. 207-209.
2. John Locke’s natural philosophy (1632-1671) / Jonathan Craig Walmsley. – Thesis (Ph.D.)--King's College London, 1998. – p. 272-276.
3. “Morbus : Locke’s early essay on disease” / Jonathan Walmsley. // IN: Early science and medicine. – 5 (2000):390-393.
4. Writings on natural philosophy and medicine / John Locke ; edited by Peter Anstey and Lawrence Principe. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, forthcoming. – (The Clarendon edition of the works of John Locke)

Discussions:   Romanell, publication #1 above, chapter 3; Walmsley, publications #2 and #3 above.