![Habit Forming Drugs Facts and Fallacies [self-wrapper title]. Addiction, M. D. K. F. Purdy](/pictures/thumb/18178.jpg?v=1508865426)
[Houston: n. p., ca. 1906-1910?]. First edition. Self-wrappered wire stitched pamphlet, 5.75 x 3.5 inches, 8 pages on green stock. Promotional pamphlet for a drug addiction sanitarium in Houston, here at 1316 Boulevard, Houston Heights (in the charge of Dr. Edward Purdy; downtown office at 614-1/2 Fannin Street), specifically aimed..... More
Harrisburg, Pa. n. p., 1840. An early (stated third) edition, but see below. 12mo, contemporary sheep spine, patterned paper over boards, 84 pages. An early edition of Hohman’s well-known folk magic and remedy book, first published in Reading in 1820 and with scattered Pennsylvania editions following throughout the 1820s and..... More
Harrisburg, Pa. n. p., 1843. An early (stated third) edition, but see below. 12mo, original black morocco spine, marbled boards, 84 pages. An early edition of Hohman’s well-known folk magic and remedy book, first published in Reading in 1820 and with scattered Pennsylvania editions following throughout the 1820s and 1830s..... More
![Der lange verborgene Schatz und Haus-Freund, oder Getreuer und christlicher Untericht [sic] für...](/pictures/thumb/19495.jpg?v=1575314409)
Skippacksville, Pa. gedruckt bei A. Puwelle, 1837. 12mo, contemporary black calf spine, marbled boards, 123, [1] pages. An early edition of Hohman’s well-known folk magic and remedy book, first published in Reading in 1820, this edition predating the English translation. This copy includes the evidence of a contemporary ink autograph..... More
Boston: Re-printed by Rogers and Fowle, for J. Edwards in Cornhill, 1746. Removed from an 18th century calf binding (with traces of the calf to the spine), 176 pages. 1746 was an unusually bad year for the “bloody flux” or dysentery in Massachusetts (see both Nash, Historical Sketch of the..... More
A Londres [i.e., Paris?]: n. p., 1786. First edition. 8vo, contemporary sheep, gilt spine, xxii, 255. The author’s case study of a magnetic treatment of a woman (for headaches, etc.) and her episodes of slipping into a trance state under treatment; Tardy de Montravel attempts in part to explain accounts..... More
Philadelphia: Printed and Published by Merrihew & Gunn, 1837. First edition. 12mo, original rose linen spine, printed drab boards, 84 pages. Poe enthusiast Joseph Jackson was fresh off his triumphant 1920 attribution to Poe of the uncommon pseudonymous anti-Dickens English Notes (Boston, 1842) by “Quarles Quickens,” when, in Jackson’s own..... More
[New York: n. p., ca. 1901]. First edition. Small 8vo, original pictorial glazed yellow wrappers, 15, [1] pages. Illus. Home battery systems, including the “20th Century Battery,” from the agency best known for its electric belts. The batteries are said to cure paralysis, rheumatism, neuralgia, etc., the whole illustrated with..... More
[New York: P. G. Williams, 1902]. First edition. 8vo, original printed green wrappers, 40 pages. Extensively illustrated. Medical dry cell batteries, electrodes, accessories, Rhumkorff Induction Coils for office X-ray work, the Williams X-ray outfit, etc. (The Williams concern boasts in part of the quality of cabinet makers employed for constructing..... More
![The Thermo Ozone Battery: A New Discovery in Electricity [wrapper title; caption title:] The...](/pictures/thumb/18322.jpg?v=1516127471)
[New York: S. R. Beckwith, ca. 1896]. First edition. Small 8vo, original printed peach wrappers, 64 pages. Illus. The potential customer is asked to carefully notice “our discovery bears no relation to electricity as generally understood, which by its jars, shocks and bunching of tissue is harmful. The force we..... More
![To Stammerers. Young and Old . . . [caption title]. Benjamin Beasley](/images/noimage.png)
(Birmingham, England: Press of Hudson & Son), [ca. 1899]. First edition. Unbound pamphlet, approx. 8.75 x 5.5 inches, 4 pages. Promotional material (including testimonials) for this "school for young stammerers" run by Mr. and Mrs. Beasley in Brampton Park, near Huntingdon, "Where Education in all its branches, embracing the highest..... More
New York: German Electric Agency, [ca. 1893]. Likely a later version of this quack device promotional catalog. Small 8vo, wire stitched into original color lithograph wrappers in red and black (with the wrapper title “The Electric Era”), 24 pages. Illus. “Although Electricity, properly applied, is a wonderful remedy of nearly..... More
(Cincinnati: Pulvermacher Galvanic Co., 1879). [but ca. 1891]. A later version of this promotional pamphlet. 8vo, original blue printed wrappers, 30, [8] pages. Illus. On the myriad benefits of this galvanic belt, aimed in large part at male sexual debility and impotence; Pulvermacher was one of the pioneers in this..... More
(Cleveland, O. The Therenoid Corporation), [ca. 1929]. First edition. 12mo, original printed blue wrappers, 48 pages. Illus. The myriad benefits of this electromagnetic solenoid belt, suitable for home treatment of anything from insomnia to insanity to Bright’s Disease: “A short time ago a very good physician here in Los Angeles..... More
Fall River, Mass. Wm. S. Robertson, Steam Printer, 1877. Second edition; the 47-page first edition appeared in Irvinton, N.J., in 1848. 8vo, unbound, 40 pages. On October 28, 1858, Bourne was asked to attend Christian Chapel in Westerly, R.I., and to this request evidently "said within himself, 'I would rather..... More
Burbank: Health Science Church, (1937). First edition. Small 8vo, original printed orange wrappers, 62 pages, illus. The well-known advocate of unprocessed foods and the theoretician behind the ascendancy of Jack La Lanne here presents the religious and nutritional foundations behind his system of healthy diet and other esoteric practices (he..... More
[Des Moines, Iowa: Chamberlain Medicine Company, ca. 1890-1900?]. 8vo, original decorated self wrappers, [16] pages. An advertising pamphlet for patent medicines: Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera & Diarrhea Remedy, Chamberlain's Antiseptic Liniment, Chamberlain's Salve (good for burns, piles, sore nipples, etc.). Interspersed with the testimonials are a number of humorous stories, jokes..... More
![Your Future [wrapper title]. Chiropractic, Inc Metropolitan Chiropractic College](/pictures/thumb/18352.jpg?v=1518542375)
[Cleveland, O. Metropolitan Chiropractic College, Inc., ca. 1931]. First edition. Original self-wrappers, approx. 9 x 6 inches, 16 pages on coated white stock, illus. Course catalog and promotional pamphlet for this chiropractic college in Cleveland, O.: “Because of the universal need, Chiropractors are unusually successful. The field is not overcrowded.”..... More
Bound Brook, N. J. Asa K. Butts, 1886. A later American printing of this landmark work on contraception, but with an interesting imprint. (See below.). 8vo, original printed wrappers, 47, [1] pages. Frontis portrait of Besant. Besant had revolutionized the publication of contraceptive information in England after her republication of..... More
New York: J. S. Redfield, Publisher, 1870. First edition. 8vo, original terra-cotta cloth, gilt lettering, 240 pages. “The means used for preventing conception, more particularly affecting women, together with the more bodily injurious, more nervously exhausting and more sinfully demoralizing procedures, for the purpose of destroying and making away with..... More
New York: Published by G. Vale, [1858]. Stated tenth edition. 8vo, original green cloth, gilt lettering, 88, [1] pages. Frontis, illus. The Atwater catalog notes that this edition adds a note from Owen’s associate Gilbert Vale, who published this edition, “in which he discusses conception and its prevention,” including douching..... More
Boston: J. P. Mendum, at the Office of the ‘Boston Investigator,’, 1875. Stated tenth edition, reissued here with an cancel title page. 8vo, original decorated brown cloth, gilt lettering, 88, [1] pages. Frontis, illus. This edition includes the note from Vale in which (per Atwater) “he discusses conception and its..... More
Chicago: The Aggressive Publishing Co., 2321 W. North Ave. (1924). First edition. 8vo, original printed gray wrappers, [vi], 33 pages, printed nearly entirely on the rectos only. Dalsey here claims his essays on human character "are based on a new system of philosophy, conceived, tested and proved" (though he seems..... More
Wilmington, Del. Ferris Bros., Printers and Bookbinders, 1886. First edition. Original printed blue wrappers, 6.25 x 4.5 inches, [i-iv], [7]-31, [1] pages. “When I was nineteen years of age I walked a thousand miles to overcome a constitutional ailment that was dragging me down to an early grave. I spent..... More
![Dr. Pierce’s Book of Fortune [wrapper title]. Dream Book, Dr. Valentine Mott Pierce](/pictures/thumb/18348.jpg?v=1518542374)
[Buffalo, N. Y. n. p., ca. 1941]. First edition. Small 8vo, original color pictorial wrappers, 32 pages. A typical promotional pamphlet, more attractive than most, from the longtime Buffalo patent medicine firm, under the guiding hand of the son of the late Dr. R. V. Pierce; the firm specialized in..... More
