Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1517

WOOSTER BEACH (1794-1868) The American practice condensed, or The family physician. James M'Alister 1850 16th ed. xlviii, 800 pp., [52] pp. of plates (part col., front. (port.)), illus. 22.5 cm.

Beach, the founder of eclectic medicine, was a native of Trumbull, Connecticut. He studied with botanical practitioners and graduated from the medical college of New York University. He was in opposition to the heroic medicine of the day, which relied on bloodletting and purgatives, and drew his ideas from the Thomsonians and other practitioners of botanical medicine. Since he developed the principles of his medical practice from different sources, he decided to call himself an eclectic. Beach opened a school at New York City in 1827 and later helped establish a branch of his school at Worthington, Ohio, which closed in 1840. When the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati opened in 1845, Beach joined the faculty and in 1855 he became president of the National Eclectic Medical Association. Beach recognized the importance of publicizing his views and published a newsletter for many years. He wrote a number of books including the present work, which first appeared at New York in 1833 as the American practice of medicine. A large and comprehensive treatise, it is Beach's "scientific system of medicine . . . [and] . . . embraces the character, causes, symptoms, and treatment of the diseases of men, women, and children, of all climates" (Title page).