THE REFORMED BOTANIC AND INDIAN PHYSICIAN: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HEALTH
Book Details + Condition: Curtiss & White (Utica, NY). Scarce First Edition, 1855. By Dr. Daniel Smith. Hardcover 8 vo. with brown blind stamped cloth. 419 pages, with two indices. Frontispiece engraving of the human skeleton, as well as 8 small engravings of internal and skeletal anatomy. THE REFORMED BOTANIC AND INDIAN PHYSICIAN is an important early American guide to natural healing, based on Native American techniques. The author was born in 1790, and was taught the traditions and medical knowledge of the neighboring New York Native American tribes. His intent was to provide natural remedies as a protest to the growing glut of quack medicines and their "cures". The book includes the use of roots, plants, herbs flowers, bark and other natural elements to relieve a wide array of ailments. In the first section, "Names of Roots, Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, And Their Medicinal Uses", the author provides the common and Latin names of hundreds of of these natural finds and their medicinal properties. The next section includes recipes for the treatment of a multitude of ailments, injuries and sicknesses. The last sections pertain to medical and health issues and treatment of horses, cattle and poultry. There is also a chapter on making wine and beer, and some comments on hunting and fishing. An overall worn but firm copy of a scarce work, with tight binding; wear to boards; spine covered with binding tape; foxing present throughout; interior is otherwise clean and free of markings save owner's name on endpaper and old pencil notes on following blank page.
