An Epitome of the Homeopathic Healing Art: Now Available!

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Benjamin Hills exhaustive work on homeopathy is effectively meant to be a guide to the actual usage of the medicines involved with the practice- a list of different materials of note (herbal and mineral), and various conditions and their treatments. This system departs somewhat from older medical traditions which were more drastic, while retaining a focus on using many substances known to be dangerous to human health, such as ipecac and arsenic. It speaks briefly on the preparation of medicinal compounds and pills as well.

Some of the treatments proposed are also innocuous- a departure from older medicine, while retaining some of the same basic premises of Galenism.

103 pages.

Medical Fashions of the Nineteenth Century: Now Available!

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This little text is an interesting look at both superstition and science, both orthodox and unorthodox medical practice, as analyzed at the end of the 19th century. Skepticism of germ theory mixes with very valid criticism of the over-prescription of anesthetics. The miasmatic theory clings on even as sanitation takes hold. Perhaps out current era, with its own debate and medical meanderings, is less separate from talismans, leeches, and the four humors, than we might wish to think.

50 pages.

The Principles of Occult Healing: Now Available!

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This work was compiled by multiple Theosophists and ruminates on the general idea of healing with methods outside of the generally orthodox such as pills and so forth. "Drugless healing" is discussed at length- that is, the use of mesmerism, etc, as pain relief, or of using autosuggestion. Indeed, some of the methods here for the purposes of psychological disturbance are still employed- such as the use of certain music to create relaxation, stress reduction being important in a medicinal context.

102 pages.

The Old Root and Herb Doctor: Now Available!

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This fine little work is rather unique as far as 19th century herbals go; it contains the normal materia medica and preparations for various ailments, but also includes a short section on the caloric nutritional value of certain common foodstuffs, even including the digestion time of the same. In another odd inclusion, it compiles a list of commonly encountered poisons and their antidotes- normally warm water for vomiting, a stomach pump, and various counteracting agents. That section is almost surely geared mainly towards parents of small children.

While the work was, by and large, well made, it included numerous typographical mistakes which I had to correct, and its non-alphabetical content at the end indicates to me that it was either hastily edited or not edited at all prior to being printed.

It should be noted that the work contains contemporary Euro-American Thompsonian simples and has nothing to do with "Natives." This was a marketing gimmick.

73 pages.

Ayurveda; The Hindu System of Medical Science: Now Available!

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This text explores Ayurveda; its basic categorical systems (types of disease, types of substances for healing, different sub-schools of medicine, etc) and a bit about its history. It is interesting to note that Ayurveda was among the few early systems with a fully categorical conceptualization, and allowed dissection, allowing for a greater understanding of anatomy. It contains a brief materia medica of herbal species as well as some recipes for compounds of note.

76 pages.

Folk Medicine, A Collection: Now Available!

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This is yet another full length compilation of texts and content from texts which I have crafted- I have to say it is thus far my favorite of all the compilations, and deals with medical lore from multiple subgenres.

The first section contains, verbatim, the famous Regimen Salernitus Salernitanum, a medieval work on dietary and similar science, and then proceeds with sections on various folk cures, astrological and alchemical medical content, herbs and their medical usages, and more, compiled from about a dozen different sources, with an expansive preface, a short list of archaic medicinal terms which I thought necessary to explain for the reader, and a section with some other works of note which can be consulted for further reading.

320 pages.

Frays Golden Recipes: Now Available!

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At the dawn of the 19th century, most popular domestic tip books contained ritual magic or at least prayers and explicit superstition. By the time of this particular work in the late 19th century, those had disappeared leaving herbal medicine, simple tips, recipes, and so forth; indeed, the path from grimoire, to this type of text, to modern woodcrafting and recipe books is fascinating.

It contains a slew of herbal remedies for disease and injury, as well as tips for basic issues such as illness in livestock and so forth- although some of the remedies are not a great idea, some of them remain in alternative medicine even today. It ought to be noted that this booklet had a very long printing run; I have seen scans of editions post-dating this one by 20 years.

66 pages.

The Indigenous Drugs of India: Now Available!

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This intermediate-length medical work is one part anthropological text, one part recipe book, and one part good medical history. About 90% of the entries here are herbal; but it lists some minerals and chemical compounds and even a couple of insect species, all of which were apparently sold through the Indian subcontinent as medical materials in the 1860s.

The fascinating blend of scientific rigor with what amounts to folklore here is spectacular; I'm a bit of a sucker for such works since I studied anthropology myself; the occultist may find this text useful since it is basically derived from a blend of ayurvedic, islamic, and pan-european medical practices and explicitly involves the spiritual side of life (which tends to be the case whenever mortality is addressed.) It contains both local and Latin terminology.

135 pages.

The Occult Family Physician: Now Available!

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This fairly long book is a tome of medical and herbal lore which combines multiple distinct elements of literature into one semi-condensed volume. Often, in the 19th century, the Materia Medica was separate from social tracts or only contained herbs and their uses or recipes. This contains all of the above, as well as dietary content, all from the backdrop of the botanic method, which stressed proper living, "natural" remedies, and was altogether an objective improvement on the prior era of mercury based medicine, antimonial injections into wounds, and other pseudo-alchemical snake oil.

It is interesting to note that by this time, while lobelia (formerly heralded as a sort of cure-all) was continued in use for many complaints, it had lost ground against chamomile, st johns wort, artemesia absinthium, and a few other species which were rising in prominence.

Of interest as well here is a short tract against onanism ("self pollution"!) and material involving spiritism.

307 pages.

Jacobs Rod: Now Available!

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This is a text in two parts; first a translated late 17th century work by Baritel, then an "addendum" (really its own short work) by the translator, regarding mesmeric and dowsing experiments by his wife and him and various energetic lore related to finding mines or water using a hazel rod or the use of "mesmeric passes."

The second text is oddly more fun than the first in this compiled work, but Baritels' own text is definitely worth a read, since it speaks at length on the concept of energized water among other arcane topics.

113 pages.

Fifteen Lectures on Medical Botany: Now Available!

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The 1830s represent an interesting period in medical history in which the old mercury and leeches of the system of Galen were replaced by botanical and "simples"-based medical practice until the era of fully "rational" chemical and biological science began a half century later. The essential premise here is that former medical practice was dangerous (objectively true) and botanical treatment superior and more "godly" (debatable.) What I do not debate is that administering lobelia or capsicum is "probably" safer than dosing people up on mercury, antimony, or dangerously powerful emetics.

186 pages.

American Medicinal Leaves and Herbs: Now Available!

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This interesting little work is another of the botanically important circulations produced at the dawn of the 20th century by the US Department of Agriculture- it is fully illustrated by Rita Metzner, whose Instagram you can see here. It lists over 30 species of note that grow within the region of the continental United States- mostly native plant life, with a few European garden escapees. The number of uses is quite large; from expectorants and purgatives to general balms. That is all secondary however as the work was mainly meant for farmers and rural dwellers to be able to identify and exploit species in order to prevent continued US reliance on imports of plant material which were used within a clinical setting as medicine in an era before modern standards and preparations.

67 pages.

Hypnotism, Personal Magnetism, Physical Culture, Health Breathing, and Magnetic Bathing: Now Available!

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And now the award for most obtusely titled booklet goes to!...

Zach Shed is an interesting individual; I can't seem to find any info about him other than that he authored this booklet at the dawn of the 20th century; originally, it was horizontally aligned (wider than tall) and its title beckons the question "why?" Nonetheless, it's a good work overall; it suggests the use of healthy breathing exercises, positivity, hypnosis, and magnetic bathing, as well as dietary changes, to prolong health and generally stave off disease and age. Some of its suggestions are in vogue even today; a lot of health "nuts" drink lemon water preferentially and endorse the breathing practices of Tai Chi, etc. Proponents of the alkaline diet beware- this work stresses the need for balanced acidity.

61 pages.

Travel Means Work, Too!

Today I will be traveling overseas! I haven't disclosed where for security reasons- but just because I'll be soaring over the ocean doesn't mean it isn't a perfect time to do some literary work; indeed, there's not a whole lot else to do except plug my laptop in and watch my own films because the on-board movies will probably suck ass.

I decided to plow through an interesting receipt book and botanical text called "The Family Companion and Physician." It's of middling length and contains a series of treatments for ailments, some preparations of herbal and other compounds, and a short lecture on related topics. I am not sure what proportion of it I'll be able to complete over the Atlantic Ocean but regardless, at least I'll have something to do while movies or music play in the background.

Mind And Body: Now Available!

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This work is notable for its extensive treatment of the history of faith healing, mesmerism, hypnosis, and similar topics. The overarching topic is, in the latter half, about suggestion, but leads up to it by presenting material about how cells communicate with one another, and some various philosophy. Some of its material is badly dated but other content has held up over time (the potential therapeutic use of hypnosis, for example, at least for some purposes.)

It is well written and somewhat dense, with a large number of quoted secondary sources both ancient and then-modern.

110 pages.

The Remedial Uses of Hypnotism: Now Available!

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While extremely short this work needed to be released in a modern edition because it is perhaps one of the best examples of claims made by proponents of hypnotism in its era; its efficacy at treating certain disorders is now beyond question but claims here that it works almost invariably and can cure everything from tuberculosis to asthma of course are now rendered into the same family as bloodletting and electroshock.

The arguments made against the comic use of mesmerism as entertainment, and its words about the use of hypnotism in crimes are both quite a good read.

24 pages.

Magic and Mystery: Now Available!

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This particular work is written from the perspective of sometimes quite severe skepticism towards folklore of various kinds, from the disorganized and tribal (and often antiquated) to the then-modern, medical, and "scientific." Amusingly, some of its then-accepted scientific conjectures are now themselves classed as pseudoscience and hokum.

The span of subjects covered here is quite massive; of greatest interest are probably tidbits about fairy lore and homeopathy, which are fairly lengthy. Most of the text is broken up into very short segments of not much more than a paragraph or two on each subjugated subject.

138 pages.

Valuable Herbal Prescriptions: Now Available!

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This homeopathic tract contains a number of remedies (technically late pre-modern folk remedies) for ailments ranging from dyspepsia to hysteria. It also contains a small amount of social reformist sentiment. As with "Weeds Used as Medicine" it was beautifully re-illustrated by Rita Metzner, whose instagram can be seen here.

Some of the weights and measurements used herein are archaic in form (such as the drachm) but overall it's an interesting piece of historical medical literature with quite a few botanical species of note.

56 pages.

The Art of Rita Metzner: Illustrator of "Weeds as Medicine" and "Valuable Herbal Prescriptions"

Some time ago I decided it was impossible to personally illustrate all of the herbal works I desired to release; I needed someone to do that part of the work for me, having edited or partially edited a half dozen or so works I couldn't complete. Rita Metzner had submitted a link to her art along with many others and was selected as the best possible candidate for an illustrator. Indeed, the result is very nice. As you can see, she doesn't do just herbal works, but also some rather fantastical (dare I say vaguely occult?) works as well.

Link to Rita's Instagram

Below I wanted to display a couple of the herbal pictures; the first from the (completed, processing) Weeds as Medicine, the second from Herbal Prescriptions, which should be complete before the beginning of July or just thereafter.

The Blessed Thistle.

Poppy Plant.

Counterblast to Tobacco: Now Available!

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This exceedingly short tract is of note for two reasons; its author and its early date for the content. Crafted at the dawn of the 17th century, it is the first anti-smoking tract, and was penned by none other than King James I himself, of "Daemonologie" fame.

Dwelling on both the humors and then-modern medical lore as well as the spiritual implications of smoking (it being according to his view a sin on several levels), the tract attempts to convince the population of James' time and lands to give up smoking except as a limited medicinal material, sarcastically declaring it miraculous that the same plant can cure sometimes congenitally opposed conditions.

25 pages.