The American physician : being a new system of practice, founded on botany ; for the use of families and practitioners.

  • Rogers, David
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American physician : being a new system of practice, founded on botany ; for the use of families and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    properties of vegetables have been explored, the more have they been fount! to furnish supplies for the nour- ishment and health of the animated part of creation. Exotick vegetables may perhaps prove useful, especial- ly if naturalized by cultivation in our own soil, in our own climate ; but it is at least probable, if not certain, that our own native plants are abundantly sufficient to answer all the medical demands of our country. And ought not every man so to value his own health, and the gifts of Providence for preserving and restoring health, as to make this a part of his study? Has it not occurred even to physicians of the learned order, that every man may and ought, at a proper age and to a certain extent, to become 'his own physician?' This cannot be questioned when we consider how much dep- euds on diet, temperance, and exercise. And may I not be allowed to suggest, that every womau—every mother especially, ought to be a physician as well as nurse, in her own family? Surely those charitable ladies, whose plans of beneficence go beyond mere theory—who have hands capable of doing good, as well as minds for de- vising good, will not find their feelings revolt at my suggestion. Many, I know, act on this plan already— and to better effect than the most scientific!* practitioner; and to their own families at least, they become emphat- ically beloved physicians. To assist such practical philanthropists, I have pre- pared what seemed tome necessary, a plain and concise work, relative to medicinal plants and their use in cu- ring diseases. Concerning my pretensions to medical skill and the efficacy of the methods of cure here recom- mended, I shall at present add nothing, except what may be found in such certificates as I shall present to the reader. [See Appendix.] The following extracts, from some of the most able writers on medical science, will serve to corroborate I*