Formulae Selectae - The Thomas Chadbourne Medical Notebook

Thomas Chadbourne (1790–1864) began his medical studies with his father. In 1811, he traveled to Hanover, New Hampshire to continue his studies as the private student of Dr. Nathan Smith (a co-founder of Dartmouth Medical School) and Dr. Cyrus Perkins (a professor of anatomy and surgery at Dartmouth College). Chadbourne graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1814 and worked as a physician in Concord, New Hampshire until his death in 1864.

This manuscript notebook was kept by Chadbourne in 1811, while a student of Smith and Perkins. Titling the notebook “Formulae Selectae,” or, Selected Formulas, Chadbourne used it to record recipes, often with detailed proportions and dosage, to be used in curing various diseases, including cholera, dropsy and diabetes. He attributes some recipes to specific people or communities, including a recipe for bitters used by his father; a remedy for Dysentaria attributed to the Oneida Indian Nation; a recipe for plaster attributed to “a Quaker woman”; and various recipes attributed to his tutors, Smith and Perkins. The back of the notebook also includes household recipes for pancakes, molasses cake, molasses gingerbread, and tea cakes.