A Course of Fifteen Lectures, On Botany, Denominated Thomson's New Theory of Medical Practice; In Which the Various Theories That Have Preceded it Are Reviewed and Compared. Delivered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A Course of Fifteen Lectures, On Botany, Denominated Thomson's New Theory of Medical Practice; In Which the Various Theories That Have Preceded it Are Reviewed and Compared. Delivered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Robinson, Dr. Samuel. 1835. Columbus, Ohio: Jarvis Pike & Co.

16mo.(3.25" x 5.125") 205 + (2) pp. Full speckled calf. Spine with gilt bands, gilt lettering to red leather in second compartment. All edges lightly speckled brown. Edgewear, corners bumped and rubbed with small loss, head and foot of spine chipped with small loss. Boards scuffed and rubbed with loss of leather finish towards fore-edge of both covers. Illegible bookplate to front pastedown, decorative ink stamp of prior ownership to first free endpaper. Lower edge of pages almost throughout text with dampstain, not affecting text. Some foxing throughout, not consistent, heavier to some pages and not to others.

An early American work on medical botany and Thomsonian medicine, presenting fifteen lectures delivered in Cincinnati by Dr. Samuel Robinson. The lectures explain and defend Samuel Thomson’s system of botanical medicine while reviewing and comparing earlier medical theories, making the volume both a practical exposition of herbal treatment and a critique of competing medical systems.

Samuel Thomson’s medical movement rejected much of orthodox “heroic” medicine and emphasized treatment through botanical remedies, heat, steaming, and the restoration of the body’s natural balance. Robinson’s lectures place that system within the broader history of medicine and show how botanical practice was being promoted to American readers during a period of intense debate over medical authority and treatment.

A worthwhile piece for collections focused on American medical history, herbalism, Thomsonian medicine, alternative medical movements, early Ohio printing, or nineteenth-century botanical practice.