Receit For Consumption

This “Receit For Consumption” is the formula for medicine to treat consumption, known today as tuberculosis. (The term receit or receipt was used in times past for a medical prescription or recipe with a list of ingredients and instructions on how to make the medicine.) This receit was found between the pages of William Edgar McCulloh’s bible. Family tradition has held that William’s father Amos McCulloh died of tuberculosis and this document lends credibility to that tradition. The document was folded and bears Hannah McCulloh’s name (Amos’s wife) on the reverse side to the effect that someone wrote out the recipe, the paper was then folded and Hannah’s name was written on it as though it was to be delivered to her; presumably for the treatment of Amos. Curiously Samuel Wise’s name also appears on the reverse side up-side-down under Hannah’s name. Samuel was Amos and Hannah’s neighbor and Hannah married Samuel a few years after Amos succumbed to tuberculosis the day after Christmas in 1876. (To view larger images click on the image.)