Item #19887 A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson; Containing at Account of his System of Practice, and the Manner of Curing Disease with Vegetable Medicine, upon a Plan Entirely New; to which is added An Introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician . . . Fifth Edition. Samuel Thomson.
A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson; Containing at Account of his System of Practice, and the Manner of Curing Disease with Vegetable Medicine, upon a Plan Entirely New; to which is added An Introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician . . . Fifth Edition.
A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson; Containing at Account of his System of Practice, and the Manner of Curing Disease with Vegetable Medicine, upon a Plan Entirely New; to which is added An Introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician . . . Fifth Edition.
A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson; Containing at Account of his System of Practice, and the Manner of Curing Disease with Vegetable Medicine, upon a Plan Entirely New; to which is added An Introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician . . . Fifth Edition.

A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson; Containing at Account of his System of Practice, and the Manner of Curing Disease with Vegetable Medicine, upon a Plan Entirely New; to which is added An Introduction to his New Guide to Health, or Botanic Family Physician . . . Fifth Edition.

St. Clairsville [Ohio]: Published by Horton Howard; Howard & Little, Printers, 1829. Stated fifth edition; the first appeared in Boston in 1825. 12mo, original sheep spine, marbled sides, 188 pages. Frontis portrait. Spine darkened and somewhat rubbed; boards somewhat rubbed; some substantial staining in the early portion of the book, with scattered foxing; a good, sound copy only. Item #19887

From the Ohio Valley stronghold of Thomsonian popularity, an early Ohio edition (preceded by an 1827 Columbus edition and an 1828 Lancaster edition in German) of a key American popular medical work first published in Boston and the first substantial work (preceded by pamphlets) of the reforming botanic doctor Thomson (1769-1843), which in its numerous editions over the next decade or so was sold as a sort of licensed system of botanic treatment; as noted in the ANB, “Although Thomson’s system proved to be no more beneficial than heroic medicine, its acceptance by a significant portion of the general public caused many physicians to rethink the advisability of relying to such a great degree on bloodletting and calomel, methods that did far more harm than good. Thomson’s greatest contribution to the advance of American medicine was the role he played in helping to rid the medical profession of these deleterious practices.” The printer Howard’s namesake Quaker land-agent father himself adopted Thomsonian practices—though the father soon broke with Thomson, and published his own Improved System of Botanic Medicine (Columbus, 1832), which evidently involved him in a lawsuit with Thomson. (The elder Howard evaded judgment with his own death from cholera in 1833.) Atwater 3489 (this edition). With a flaw to the paper stock or a tear of about 2.5 by 1.5 inches from the lower corner of leaf A6, with loss of text.

Price: $200.00

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