Several rare books scanned by Michael Tierra or linked to various sites on the internet from people such as Henriette Kress, Michael Moore and Paul Bergner, are included here. These represent a virtual historical herbal library.
Cancer: Its Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
By Eli G. Jones, M.D. Dr. Eli Jones was one of the most important Eclectic medical doctors and teachers at the turn of the 20th century. He began offering special courses in the treatment of cancer toward the latter part of the 19th century for other Eclectics and medical doctors. His protocol included the use of special diet, epsom salts baths, lifestyle counseling and guidance, escharotic salves and various herbs taken both internally and applied externally as appropriate. Today, his book on the subject is highly respected by herbalists, who are inspired by the dedication, integrity, and zeal of Eli Jones.
Nicholas Culpeper lived from 1616-1654. His herbal has gone through nearly as many and perhaps more printings and revisions than the bible. As an English physician, he was scrutinized by members of his profession for translating their medical texts from latin to common language. His aim was to bring herbal medicine to the poor and disenfranchised. He personally practiced amongst the poor and in many instances shunning recompense for his services. This is an electronic facsimile of the 1652 edition.
“Fuch’s Botany of 1545″ is in latin but it contains 516 woodcuts of plants, some colored. Files are large and the site takes some time to load but for many of us this may be the closest we are ever going to get to this rare 16th century herbal.
From Henrietta Kress’s website:
Henriette Kress’ classic texts page includes major scanned works like King’s American Dispensatory (1898) and the British Pharmaceutical Codex (1911) as well as scans of lesser books, shorter articles (ephemera) and journals. In addition you’ll find .html versions of books and journals scanned by Michael Moore (Felter, Ellingwood, Petersen, …), and a .html version of Cook, scanned by Paul Bergner.
From Michael Moore’s wonderful website:
The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D. (rescanned 10/01) The classic text from 1922 in an abridged form (botanicals only), by letter or as a single book…acrobat files only, as well as all 24 black-and-white photographs from the original edition.
American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy
by Finley Ellingwood, M.D. (12/01) The classic Eclectic medical text from 1919, by chapter and group or as an alphabetical botanical-only version.
The Cascara Tree in British Columbia
by John Davidson. (12/01) A 1942 British Columbian Govt. publication discusses how to and not to harvest Cascara Sagrada, how to coppice and cultivate the native bush, and then offers an even-handed method for regulating wildcrafting. A good model for dealing with current overpicking.
Classic Works in Botanical medicine
Monographs and formularies on Eclectic Medicine, Naturopathy, Thomsonian Medicine, pharmacy, and pharmacognosy, both in text and Acrobat files. This includes John Uri Lloyd’s Herb Drug pamphlets, Elixirs and Flavoring Extracts, Quantity Versus Quality, Otto Mauserts formulas and the iconoclastic Samuel Thomson’s 19th century classic “Guide To Health”
by John William Fyfe, M.D. (Eclectic Manual #6, 1903) The Essentials of Modern Materia Medica and Therapeutics by John William Fyfe, M.D. (Eclectic Manual #6, 1903) A well-known New York teaching physician, Fyfe bridged the gap between the charismatic Ellingwood and the careful and sometimes arcane Felter in this handbook, published, as were most major Eclectic medical texts, by Scudders of Cincinnati.
The manual was intended for the physician in practice, with clear and rather precise indications for therapeutic use. There is little of Felter’s almost encyclopedic listing of possible uses, rather the practical, centrist applications. There is little dwelling here on the nature of the actual botanical (Fyfe left that for J.U. Lloyd’s texts), nor is there complex dosology (Fyfe relying on the then readily available fluidextracts of the drug trade and the Specific Medicines manufactured by Lloyd Brothers)…a good, methodical Materia Medica for the clinical Eclectic-oriented doc of the turn of the century.
A Manual of Materia Medica and Pharmacology
by David M.R. Culbreth, Ph.G., M.D. (7th edition, 1927)
Note on the revised version: thanks to original editions supplied by Paul Bergner and Michael Gregory, I was able to rescan and reedit Culbreth’s. I had hoped to be able to OCR the text to make for shorter files, but, as with many older technical manuals, the dizzying array of typefaces, sizes and styles made even mighty OmniPage Pro burp and die. I ended up retaining the book as bitmaps…300 dpi, suitable for spiffy printing…and as Acrobat (.pdf) files, since no cross-platform file format compresses huge amounts of gifs so well. The downside is that the files are 250% longer than my earlier scanning. Still, it is a 443 page book, and we all have faster modems….right?? (…sorry, but it’s worth it) It’s also has more pages and illustrations than my earlier version…added some monographs I excluded before.
This classic work, with over 300 illustrations, deals with ALL the medicinal plants that were, or had ever been, official drug plants in the history of the United States Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary, up until the publication date in 1927. — Michael Moore
Lloyd Brothers Plant Drug Pamphlets
(1897 to 1915). Pamphlets and folios on Aloes, Belladonna, Fringetree, Turkey Corn, Wild Yam, Gelsemium, Hydrastis, Alfalfa, Nux Vomica, Pomegranate Night-Blooming Cereus and Damiana. NEW 10/01: Colocynth, Copaiba, Croton Oil, Calabar Bean, Strophanthus
About the 19th century North American Eclectic Medical Herbal Movement Read Periscope article by Frances Brinker
Cook’s Physiomedicalist Dispensatory
This is available thanks to the efforts of AHG member Paul Bergner and his associate, Charlie Taylor. Just to give you an idea of what some of us have gone through to make these valuable “out of print” texts freely available online, this one took 8 months to scan it in. It is one the most valuable text that evolved from the legacy of Thompsonian herbalism and is an essential reference for North American botanicals.
Definite Medication By: Eli G. Jones, M.D. This text is forthcoming.
An Alphabetical Table of Diseases and Medicines By John Hall Summary forthcoming.