title: Lady Brilliana Harley (1598-1643): Her medicines and her doctors.
abstract: Lady Brilliana Harley was the redoubtable chatelaine of Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire during the mid-seventeenth century. Her many letters reveal much about the medications which she dispensed to her family and about the family's medical attendants. Whenever possible the Harleys preferred to consult university-educated physicians rather than the local apothecary or surgeon. These physicians are all known from other sources but Brilliana's letters add to what is known of their provincial practices. In particular, they reveal their willingness to undertake blood-letting, often thought to be the province of the more lowly surgeon, and they emphasise the great distances travelled by these practitioners and the difficulties faced by two of them during the Civil War.
authors.affiliation: Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Birmingham, UK hconnor@vineyardroad.plus.com.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Connor
mesh_terms: D000068337:Armed Conflicts / Q000266:history; D001815:Bloodletting / Q000266:history; D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history; D005197:Famous Persons; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000266:history; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000266:history*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Brilliana Harley; English Civil War; Nathaniel Wright; Samuel Bauer (Bave); Theodore Diodati; William Barker; seventeenth-century medical practice