You are looking at a Colonial American recipe for abortion. Published in 1748, it was not the only at-home herbal abortifacient of the time, but it was one of the most well read. And given the publisher, that makes sense — it was Ben Franklin.
Eager to adapt a British guidebook that had set out to teach young men how to do arithmetic, writing, and other sundry important skills for an American audience, Ben Franklin’s printing house altered the British version in part by appending a document called “The Poor Planter’s Physician”. The new manual of Franklin’s was called “The American Instructor or Young Man’s Best Companion,” and it was designed to target 18th-century Colonial Americans.
As scholar Molly Farrell pointed out in her May 2022 article in the _Slate_, Ben Franklin likely aimed his audience at females as well as males, despite the title. He advocated for the education of women, and the abortion recipe was directed to them. You can read here how it gives instructions for the “suppression of the courses,” for “unmarried women”, which was another way of talking about suspending a menstrual cycle. Pennyroyal water and bellyache root/Angelica were two widely known abortifacents at the time (and although they produce effects are not recommended for safe usage today).
The recipe ends with the caution that women could prevent “this complaint” by avoiding opiates, shaking off sloth, and also warning that they must not “long for pretty fellows, or any other trash whatsoever” — ie, avoid sex.
Sources: _Slate_, “Ben Franklin put an abortion recipe in his math textbook,” Molly Farrell, May 5, 2022. _Snopes.com_ “Did Ben Franklin publish a recipe on how to induce abortion in a math textbook,” But Ibrahim, May 16, 2022.
