Culina Famulatrix Medicinae: or, Receipts in Cookery, worthy the Notice of those Medical Practitioners, who ride in their Chariots with a Footman behind, and who receive Two-Guinea Fees from their Rich and Luxurious Patients,
'Ignotus' [i.e.,
Alexander Hunter]
Publication details: York: Printed by T. Wilson and R. Spence, and sold by J. Mawman,1804,
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The author was physician Alexander Hunter, born and educated in Edinburgh (with spells for anatomical training in Rouen and Paris), with the majority of his career spent in York - where he founded the York Lunatic Asylum in 1777, with his role in shaping policy, and subsequent defence of his actions, a cause of controversy. Hunter's responsibility for the text can be inferred from the second edition onwards, where he credits himself by name for the revisions undertaken to the text; there were four further editions in Hunter's lifetime (he died in 1809), and a couple posthumously - but the first edition of this work is scarce.As the work's long-title suggests, it is an opinionated disquisition on the 'Culinary Art', taking equal quantities from the author's stocks of epicurean tastes and medical knowledge - sometimes through pithy observation (e.g., a 'Dunelm of Crab' is seen to 'wear a gouty complexion'), in one instance in the form of a lengthy Dialogue, located in France, a diversion from Anchovy Toast, between Archaeus and Dr. Franklin.