Carr is known as the author of
Epistolæ medicinales variis occasionibus conscriptæ, which was published in 1691. The book is dedicated to the College of Physicians, and received the
imprimatur of the president and censors. The epistles, eighteen in number, do not contain much medical information, but are written in a readable, popular style, as if addressed to patients rather than to physicians. The first is on the use of
sneezing powders, the second on smoking
tobacco, the third, fourth, seventh, fifteenth, and seventeenth on various points of
dietetics, including a grave refutation of the doctrine that it is well to get drunk once a month. The eighth recommends a visit to
Montpellier for a case of
phthisis, the fifth and sixth discuss the remedial virtues of the
Tonbridge and
Bath waters and seven others are on trivial medical subjects. The fourteenth is on the
struma, and in it Carr mentions that
Charles II touched 92,107 persons between 1660 and 1682, and respectfully doubts whether they all got well. The most interesting of the epistles is the third, which is on the drinks used in
coffee-houses, namely, "
coffee,
thee, twist (a mixture of coffee and tea),
salvia, and
chocolata". Carr shows some acquaintance with the medical writings of his time, and speaks with admiration of the
Religio Medici. According to
Norman Moore, "The impression left after reading his epistles is that he was a doctor of pleasant conversation, not a profound physician, but one whose daily visit cheered the valetudinarian, and whose elaborate discussion of symptoms satisfied the hypochondriac." == References ==