Books › The medical pocket-book
The medical pocket-book
180 pages
An archival immersion into the practical remedies and bustling book trade of eighteenth-century Philadelphia.
What it feels like
Opening this text feels like stepping into a dusty, wood-paneled apothecary or an eighteenth-century Philadelphia bookshop. The reading experience is steady and deeply archival, offering a pragmatic window into how early Americans understood and treated disease. Rather than a narrative, the reader is immersed in the utilitarian texture of historical formulae, prescriptions, and medical dictionaries, all delivered with clinical detachment and instructional earnestness. The inclusion of a bookseller catalog adds a fascinating layer of early American commerce, grounding the medical advice in the physical reality of the era print culture. It is a quiet, scholarly journey that delights historians, antiquarians, and anyone captivated by the raw, unpolished artifacts of early medical literature and the historical book trade.
- Mood
- archival
- scholarly
- curious
- Tone
- pragmatic
- instructional
- clinical
- antiquarian
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- historical medical practices · early American commerce · the codification of knowledge · antiquarian bookselling
- The writing
- Utilitarian and highly structured, featuring the direct, formulaic language typical of early American reference manuals and catalogs.
- The arc
- The reader moves from a general curiosity about early medicine to a deep appreciation for the practical realities of eighteenth-century healthcare and commerce.
- Who it's for
- Readers fascinated by the history of medicine, early American imprints, and the antiquarian book trade will find this an absorbing primary source.
Content notes
- historical diseases
- outdated medical treatments
About the book
Half-title: The medical pocket-book; for those who are, and for all who wish, to be, physicians. Price one dollar
Dedicated to Sir John Pringle, Bart
"New and old, medical, surgical, and chemical works, lately imported, and now selling at Bell's book-store, near St. Paul's Church in Third-Street, Philadelphia; with the lowest price printed to each book."--p. [75-88]. Also issued separately (Evans 18351, Winans 198)
Hildeburn, C.R. Pennsylvania, 4472
Austin, R.B. Early Amer. medical imprints, 719
Winans, R.B. Book cats., 101
Microform version available in the Readex Early American Imprints series
Electronic text and image data. [Chester, Vt.: Readex, a division of Newsbank, Inc., 2002-2004. Includes files in TIFF, GIF and PDF formats with inclusion of keyword searchable text. (Early American imprints. First series; no. 18456)
Description from Open Library.
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