![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
![Visual Digest . . . Winter Issue, 1941. Vol V, No. 3 [wrapper title]. American Optometric Association, O. D. Walter F. Kimball, O. D. M. Rhudy Kimball.](/pictures/thumb/15905.jpg?v=1465913980)
(St. Joseph, Mo. American Optometric Association, 1941). First edition. 8vo, original printed green wrappers, 48 pages. Illus. An entertaining journal "dedicated to the conservation of human vision." Articles examine the physiological night-blindness of the one-eyed, highway safety legislation, the psychological blindspots in reading problem cases, and ask "Is Your Child... 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-England: Printed for the Proprietor, February—, 1813. A later but still fairly early New England edition of this evergreen sex manual. 12mo, original calf, gilt ruled spine, red leather spine label, gilt lettering, 264 pages. “For the first, when married persons design to follow the propensions of nature for the... More
[Erie, Penna? n. p., 1949]. First edition. 8vo, original red cloth, black lettering, 113, [1] pages. Illus. Biographical sketches of notable early Northwestern Pennsylvania dentists; Balthaser also recounts the highlights of Society conventions since the 1860s (papers read, discussions held, etc.). Issues range from the early efforts to eliminate unlicensed... 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 Thermo Ozone Battery Invented by S. R. Beckwith, M. D. Batteries, M. D. S. R. Beckwith.](/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
(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. 1891]. A moderately early version of this promotional catalog. Small 8vo, wire stitched into original color lithograph wrappers in green (with the wrapper title, “The Electric Era”), 24 pages. Illus. “Although Electricity, properly applied, is a wonderful remedy of nearly all classes of ailments... More
New York: German Electric Agency, [ca. 1898]. Likely a later version of this quack device promotional catalog. Small 8vo, wire stitched into original color lithograph wrappers in red, white and blue (with the wrapper title “The Electric Era”), 24 pages. Illus. “Although Electricity, properly applied, is a wonderful remedy of... 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
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 blue (with the wrapper title “The Electric Era”), 24 pages. Illus. With a fine view on the rear wrapper of the... More
![Introductory Pamphlet. Electricity Nature’s Chief Restorer. Pulvermacher’s Electric Belts, &c. [wrapper title; caption title:] The Best Known Curative Agent: Pulvermacher’s Electric Belts and Bands for Self-Application. Belts, Pulvermacher Galvanic Co.](/pictures/thumb/18254.jpg?v=1516115263)
(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
Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1845. Third American edition of this American work (the first appeared in Hartford, 1832); per Atwater, this edition includes the notes added to the Glasgow and London edition by their editors Robert Macnish and James Simpson. 12mo, original brown cloth, gilt lettering, xxviii, [37]-204 pages. A... More
![Brooks' Rupture Appliance: Greatest Discovery & Invention of the Twentieth Century . . . [wrapper title]. Brooks Rupture Appliance Co.](/pictures/thumb/14832.jpg?v=1465913974)
Marshall, Michigan: Brooks Rupture Appliance Co., (1912). First edition. 24mo, original printed wrappers, wire stitched, 24 pages. Illus. C. E. Brooks has no truck with lymphols and topicals; his marvel of the 20th century (then but some twelve years old) promises a cure to ruptures and support for the corpulent... More
[New York? n. p., ca. 1925-1935?]. First American edition? 12mo, original printed wrappers, 24 pages. Illus. A handy reference and promotional pamphlet for Burroughs Wellcome products (laxatives, purgatives, etc.) for the U.S. market. Early signature on the front wrapper, underlining in the text to the first page. More
![Contestacion del prefecto del hospital Belemitico de Santa Catalina: al articulo que da el Argos contra este establecimiento en su numero 43, del sãbado 15 de Junio del presente año [caption tite]. Fr. Jose del Carmen.](/pictures/thumb/14773.jpg?v=1465913974)
[Buenos Aires:]: Imprenta de los Expositos, [1822]. First edition. Single folio sheet printed recto and verso, approx. 12.25 x 8.75 inches. Signed in type by Fr. Jose del Carmen and dated Buenos Aires, Junio 17 de 1822, the prefect of a hospital run by a religious order responds to the... 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
