(MEDICINE) Breed Cephas Manuscript memoir of an itinerant do

Sale 2455 - Lot 162

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(MEDICINE.) Breed, Cephas. Manuscript memoir of an itinerant doctor and teacher. [180] manuscript pages in one volume, plus [125] manuscript pages on loose sheets, erratically paginated and apparently incomplete. 8vo, the volume bound at top, lacking covers, last two leaves quite worn; a few of the loose leaves on brittle paper but most in strong condition. Vp, circa 1896-1910

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Cephas Breed (1820-1917) was a native of western New York. Frustrated by the farming life, he enrolled as an adult in Geneva Medical College in 1847 and graduated in 1850, then traveled widely in the west and south in search of a suitable place to practice medicine or teach school. Among his stops were Richland, IL; St. Louis; Alexandria and Shreveport, LA; Cincinnati; Harrison, IN; and many more. In Paw Paw, MI, he found work at a pharmacy: "I made a mistake and dealt out tartar emetic for cream of tartar. . . . They mad some biscuits with it for supper. All 8 in number who ate supper . . . were immediately taken very sick with vomiting and purging" (30 September 1851). In St. Joseph, MI, he attempted to replace a recently deceased doctor, but struggled in his work: "Attempted to pull a tooth with forceps for a girl and failed" (8 November 1851). As these anecdotes might suggest, Breed's career never properly launched, and he never married after suffering several romantic embarrassments, so he ended up living on his brother's farm in Big Flats, NY near Elmira. This curious memoir was partly written in the form of long letters to an unidentified cousin, which were apparently then given to his nephew Arthur M. Breed. The pages are numbered erratically in pencil, and are apparently incomplete. A related volume (apparently written in 1910) consists mostly of extracts and transcripts from his diary dated 1847-58. with--4 letters to Cephas Breed, 1853-57.