Health Books Over Time
The establishment of the first printing press in 1976 brought forth the widespread use of books, pamphlets, as well as newspapers and other materials that were once a burden to print using block lettering. With this new invention, it became easier to spread news quickly, and to print books such as the bible, and other important books. Among these were books about health and medicine.
Settlers who came to the Americas in Colonial times brought with them along with various other cultural artifacts, and were soon reprinted in America. At those times, the majority of healing was done at home, and not in hospitals and clinics, because of high prices as well as availability. The layperson often knew just as much about health and different cures as did and professionals. Soon, these books became nearly as omnipresent as the bible, turned from mere books, to guides on how to lead a healthy life in terms of everything from diets, exercises, sex, and prolonged life. They became a part of life and culture from the moment they were first brought to America, all the way until the 19th century, and are still common today.
At first, these guides to self-healing and a better, healthier life, were reproductions of books that had been written in England and brought overseas. For example, William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine, which was first printed in 1769 in Edinburgh, and was found everywhere in American homes by the time the Civil War came around. Another such book was John Wesley’s Primitive Physick, a compilation of recipes, which also circulated widely in both England and North America after its original English publication in 1747. It was reprinted in Philadelphia as early as 1764.
The publishing and use of these books increased steadily through the first century of America’s independence. As the times and beliefs changed, though, so did the content of these health books. They reflected the technical, economic, and cultural changes that the young America was going through. Soon, the markets contained an abundance of the books, thanks to cheaper paper, transportation, binding, and printing. By the mid-19th century, health books were also more likely to be illustrated. Physicians and drug manufacturers used illustrations to promote and advertise their products and services.
Most of the books on health modeled themselves on, or in some ways resembled Buchan’s Domestic Medicine. The subjects, however, varied greatly. They included everything from sections on hernia, electricity, vaccination, rescue from drowning, diet for the poor, and cold bathing. In the middle third of the century, John Gunn’s Domestic Medicine, or Poor Man’s Friend became America’s most popular general health guide. It was first printed in Knoxville in 1830. Within a decade Poor Man’s Friend had been reprinted more than a dozen times in a variety of small towns and cities, and by 1860 it had evolved into a subscription book.
It wasn’t long before health and medicine books became a part of America’s culture. Looking at these books now can tell us much about the way Americans used to think, and about their ways of life. For example, by looking at Onania; or, the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, and all its Frightful Consequences, in both Sexes, Considered, (1724) which was the first American sexual hygiene publication. It’s plain to see by studying this book, that Puritans frowned on masturbation because it threatened marriage, leading to too many bachelors and spinsters and not enough kids to sustain the community. Sex itself was not bad. Even adultery was considered superior than masturbation.
Aside from the guides at that time, there were also books and advertisements about different medicines and treatments. One of the richest and boldest of the early medicine men, Swaim, promoted his panacea with a picture of his most famous cure. It shows a thin, sickly-looking woman, and suggests that only Swaim could have kept such a person alive. Swaim claimed his cure-all contained no mercury, but it did, and the woman’s condition recommends mercury poisoning. Medicine men held a high position in the 19th century. One of them, by the name of Dr. Jayne, made his headquarters into an advertisement by building it as tall as technology would then allow. This was in a sense the first American skyscraper.
Color made the advertisements even more successful. During the Civil War, for example, patriotism was used in the ads, which were made more effective by the colors that were used. Now and medicine men could use color to create photos that depicted healthy complexions.
The 19th century was a time in which the medical profession was vague and divided into different sects: The Thomsonian (Botanic), Eclectic, Homeopathic, and Hydropathic systems of medicine. There was a great increase in guides that explained the different characteristics and practices of healing of these different sects. These books promoted the growth of these sects. Samuel Thomson wrote one of these guides in 1822, A Guide to New Health, which was reprinted many times and influenced the competitors’ books that followed over the next 15 years. The competitors all claimed that they could provide cures through herbal remedies and avoiding “unnatural” drugs. Such books and pamphlets were popular until the 1860’s.
In the 1830’s and 40’s, homeopathic and hydropathic guides began to appear. Both practices spoke out against the unnatural aspects of regular medicine. Followers of these sects often encouraged health-enhancing diets and modes of life. It was during this time that Sylvester Graham published books on diet and sexual reform, as well as health and medical practice. A remnant of this program of lifestyle management and control remains in our daily lives in the form of the graham crackers that we are all too familiar with.
The 1840’s and 50’s brought with them many books that were aimed at women and centered around relations of the sexes. A key issue in these types of books was contraception, and ways to maintain a respectable lifestyle in the growing urban communities of America. In addition to these, there were guides on women’s diseases and health, childbirth, and infant management. Guides like these had been popular since the late 18th century. This created much competition. For example, Alexander Hamilton’s Treatsie on Management of Female Complaints, and of Children in Early Infancy, for example, spread widely, and was soon followed by competing books.
On top of everything, families were expected to know what to do in case of anything from acute fevers to diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. Once again, books started coming out on the subject. Since the generations of those times didn’t know about germs or other causes of diseases, the books mainly focused on controlling every aspect of life. They stated that diet, exercise, air quality, and sleep could all contribute to good or bad health. Books that looked at health in this manner had been written as early as the Renaissance, and had been rewritten and “recycled” since then, especially in the 18th and early 19th century.
The books usually found room to speak about how excessive anger, lust, or fear could damage the body and health. In these times, mind and body were linked and related to one another. By the 1820’s and 30’s, a new way of thinking had developed. This was called phrenology and was the belief that the brain’s anatomical structure was linked to a person’s intelligence, emotions, and functions. One of the more far-fetched theories claimed that psychological readings could be made from the bumps on a person’s head. By the mid-19th century, phrenological almanacs as well as periodicals and guides to health and happiness, became very popular. These books reached out to Americans and their attempts to comprehend and control mental states.
Until this day people find it hard to entrust their health and bodies to a physician who is more often than not, nothing more than a stranger. Laymen have been trying to find ways to heal themselves long before they settled in the Americas. Books about how to heal yourself have become important artifacts over the years, that provide us with much information about the American past. Even now, upon walking into any book store you will find an abundant supply of books on self-healing. It appears that mankind still possesses the desire to control their own bodies, just as he has for generations past, in the Americas, and all over the world.
