1840 — MEDICAL BOTANY OR HERBAL GUIDE TO HEALTH, W. Simmonite, 1st/1st HERBALISM

  MEDICAL BOTANY OR HERBAL GUIDE TO HEALTH, EXPLAINING THE NATURAL PATHOLOGY OF DISEASE, WITH HUNDREDS OF HERBAL RECIPES, THUS MAKING EVERY MAN HIS OWN PHYSICIAN — by William Joseph Simmonite, Professor of Mathematics, Astronomy, Astro Meteorology, and the Classics; Author of the Astronomical Ephemeres, Published Annually; Also The Meteorologist: Scientific Messenger, Arcana of Nativities; Mathematical Tables for Astro Philosophers; The Self Teaching Grammar, The Manual of Astronomy — 1st Edition / 1st Printing, 1840

 Publisher: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London (No Date Provided; 1840)

An exceedingly rare herbal guide by Dr. William J. Simmonite (1800-1862), a leading herbalist and prominent leader of the Astrology Revival in England during the early to mid-19th century. First edition from 1840 of MEDICAL BOTANY OR HERBAL GUIDE TO HEALTH, EXPLAINING THE NATURAL PATHOLOGY OF DISEASE, WITH HUNDREDS OF HERBAL RECIPES. The boards and binding are solid and tight save for a large chip out of the spine. The binding has been reinforced by professional repairs. Shelf-wear to boards. The pages are tanned but crisp and clean save for a random spot or two of foxing. Book measures 6-3/4" x 4-1/2". Please see below for more information on the author, his life and work.

Biography of Dr. William Joseph Simmonite (1800-1862)

Prominent leader of the nineteenth-century astrology revival in England. Little is known of Simmonite's life prior to his appearance as a schoolteacher in Sheffield, England, in the 1830s. He knew several languages and was a mathematician and herbal medicine practitioner. His first book, The Practical Self-teaching Grammar of the English Language, appeared in 1841. Simmonite emerged as an astrologer in the mid-1840s with the publication of his first astrological text, Prognostications on Revolutions, or Solar Figures (1845). He continued to write through the remainder of his life, greatly expanding the minuscule number of books available to would-be astrologers of the era. Simmonite is also credited with simplifying the nature of the calculations required to construct a horoscope chart.