Volume kept by Dr. Charles Pynchon (1719-1783) of West Springfield, Massachusetts, contains patient case histories, medicinal recipes, and financial daybook entries dating from 1739 to 1788. Among Pynchon's recipes, which he sometimes received from other doctors, include a cure for warts, containing "pigeons dung mixed with vinegar," and a cure for ulcers made of unflaked lime, burdock root, egg yoke, acorn powder, and nutmeg steeped in beer. There are also notes taken from medical writings of other physicians including Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738). Some pages are torn or torn out of the volume.

Charles Pynchon (1719-1783) was a physician active in of West Springfield, Massachusetts, between the 1730s and the 1780s.