David r maracle biography of william butler

Comprises manuscript copies of correspondence and other texts written by the physician William Butler. Evidently the vast majority are not the documents which were sent or received, but rather contemporary drafts or file copies. None of William Butler's letters are dated, neither are any of the recipients clearly identified. Most of the texts are in William Butler's own distinctive hand, some by another, possibly two, scribes.

He was elected a fellow of Clare in Despite no formal qualification in medicine, he gained a significant reputation within the medical community; he is known to have acted as physician to James I. Widely considered an eccentric, his restorative techniques were uniquely imaginative. He is said to have once revived a man suffering from an opium overdose by putting him inside the chest cavity of a recently-slaughtered cow, and cured another patient of a fever by having him thrown off a balcony into the Thames.

Extract from Lempriere's Universal Biography , 'Butler, William, a physician, of Ipswich, educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, He practised at Cambridge without a degree, but the oddity of his manners, and the bold method with which he treated his patients often successfully rendered him a favourite in his profession. Some anecdotes of him are recorded, which exhibit him more as a capricious boy or a madman than a man of sound sense.

He died aged He left no writings behind him'.

He brings to life the

The papers are loose leaf and although well-preserved, none of the draft letters are dated and over the years the manuscripts have been perused and re-ordered without care for retaining connections between individual texts. The papers have been numbered and listed here in the order as they were found by the present archivist.

Cross references have been added where links between separated pages have been discovered. Older manuscript materials in the College archive are open for consultation, except where access would potentially cause damage to particularly fragile documents. The collection has been digitised and made available online through the Cambridge University Digital Library.