I've done this kind of modernizing "translation"
of old medicine as a consultant for the National
Library of Medicine's Turning the Page project on
Elizabeth Blackwell's 18th C herbal (you can look
at some other TTP projects on early medical books
at
http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/intro.htm).
It was a fascinating task and made me conscious
of subtle changes in the use of medical language,
but I found myself turning to many old English
and Latin dictionaries for help. If there's a
Rosetta Stone for this, I haven't found it.
I usually started with the big Oxford English
Dictionary (not the Compact edition)--any big
public or academic library should have it on the
shelf or access to the online edition
http://www.oed.com/ ). Caduceus-L in history of
medicine and C18-L in 18th C studies are
listserves with lots of scholars who delight in
answering this kind of question. Both lists would
be interested in hearing about your collection of
manuscripts.
But here's the real hitch--most of these terms
will be rooted in a very different system (or
systems) of explaining health and disease from
what we have today. So, you have to explain that
context as well as the term. The words usually
don't have simple equivalents. Even if they seem
to be familiar words, you have to be
wary--today's "virus" means something very
different from the pre-Germ Theory of Disease
use of the word.
And to be fair to the people who wrote those
manuscripts in the first place, you have to find
ways to do it without mocking their language and
beliefs or dismissing them as quaint. You become,
in effect, an anthropologist of the past,
explaining a different culture's way of
understanding the world to your visitors.
You can do quick searches for definitions in a
host of pre-1702 English dictionaries at
http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/
(Lexicons of Early Modern English). But this is
what you will get under the "LEME Quick Lexicon
Search" for, e.g. dyspepsia:
Thomas Cooper
Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae
1584
Dyspepsia, dyspepsiæ Galenus. Ill concoction.
Thomas Thomas
Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae
1587
Dyspepsia, æ, f.g. Galen. Ill concoction, or digestion, rawnes of stomacke.
If you google on dyspepsia to find a modern
definition, a consumer health website will give
you something like this: "Dyspepsia is a pain or
an uncomfortable feeling in the upper middle part
of your stomach. ... Often, dyspepsia is caused
by a stomach ulcer or acid reflux disease."
(http://familydoctor.org/474.xml)
Both the 16th century and the 21st century
definitions mean "a pain in the stomach," but
they explain the site, character and cause of
the pain quite differently. The folks who wrote
your manuscripts would be as puzzled by "stomach
ulcer" and "acid reflux disease" as you are by
"dyspepsia."
For cataloguing the material, I think you should
keep the original terms and add the more modern
semi-equivalents in brackets as you decode them.
If you are planning exhibits and programs and
writing labels, then I'd urge you to check with
historian of medicine who knows the lingo of the
period.
Karen Reeds
Historian of medicine and museum consultant
Guest curator, Come into a New World: Linnaeus and America,
American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia (Feb 15--June 30, 2007)
http://www.americanswedish.org/
--------
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:20:53 -0400
From: Erin Crissman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: historical medical dictionary/reference?
Does anyone know of a good source of translation for 18th and 19th century
references to medical problems and treatments? We are cataloguing a large
collection of family manuscripts and are looking for a way to better
describe things like "blister plasters," "chilblains," "dyspepsia," and
various "nervous conditions"... web resources would be great!
Thanks!
Erin Elizabeth Crissman
Curator
Historic Cherry Hill
523 1/2 South Pearl St.
Albany, NY 12202
p.518.434.4791
f.518.434.4806
[log in to unmask]
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