Archaelogical Journey into a Medical Text

Close to 10 years ago I purchased an antique book at an auction,is about 6 inches thick it’s bound in green leather, and it’s titled library of health on the outside book cover. Inside the book its title library of health space complete guide to prevention and cure of disease. It’s said to contain practical information on

anatomy, physiology and preventive medicine; curative medicine, first aid measures, diagnosis, nursing, sexology, simple home remedies, care of the teeth, occupational diseases, garden plant remedies, alcohol and narcotics, treatment by 15 schools of medicine, beauty culture, physical culture, the science of breathing and a dictionary of drugs.

The book contains 21 books in one volume.

I love old books, I love all books. There’s something about this book caught my eye that I couldn’t explain of the time. I picked it up and it’s been sitting in my library for years. Now I also love history and archaeology and over the last couple of months I’ve been coming up with the notion that I wanted to delve into this book from the perspective of an archaeologist studying what medical teachers or teaching future doctors a hundred years ago. His book was published in 1916 and it’s almost 100 years old I believe the first of the books from this set was originally published in 1860. The book is now in the public domain as it was published before 1923.

I intend to proceed to go through the book and eventually cover many of the topics covered in the book from the perspective of looking at what was considered medical science at the turn of the century. I am not a doctor and I cannot verify the medical accuracy today of any of the items in this book nor do I recommend anyone use the items in this book for any form of cure or treatment.

The purpose of this website is primarily educational from a historical perspectivenot a medical perspective except so much is that historical medical percept active might help current doctors understand where they’re body of knowledge evolved from years ago. I also think there will be some entertainment value in looking at some concepts both moral concepts and scientific concepts that existed at the turn of the century.

I invite you to come along on my journey with me as we analyze this book and I think I might make this a hobby of mine looking at other books in the future. This volume is 1700 pages long and covers a wide body of knowledge on many different topics. I don’t think this journey will end any time soon…