[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., 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

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

[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: 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

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

(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

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

[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

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

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

[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