Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2260.5

C.M. (CELIA M.) HAYNES (fl.1887) The happy home health guide. Emmert Proprietary Co. 1887 1st edition. xii, 377 p. : ill. 24 cm.

This is a very scarce book on domestic medicine by an early female physician of the Midwest. The author [who writes the book under the pseudonym B.C. Morgan, M.D.] states in her preface that she has not written “a complete epitome of the whole science [of medicine]”; the pages “contain but the A, B, C of physiology and medicine; the knowledge every intelligent man and woman should possess in order to ward off disease; to manage simple ailments which do not require a physician; to meet the emergencies that are liable to arise in every family; and to recognize the need of a physician in cases demanding skillful treatment from the outset” (p.ii). A detailed four-page subject index follows the text. In connection with her extensive, if popular, account of human physiology, the author discusses exercise, bathing, food, ventilation, drinking water (and pollution), and care of the sick. She also mentions numerous remedies and forms of treatment for a vast assortment of disorders and injuries. Emmert Proprietary, the book’s publisher, manufactured a variety of liniments, ‘pills’, syrups, and tonics which are described in advertisements at the back. These advertisements include a McIntosh family faradic battery (with illustration) costing $10. Haynes served as an army nurse in the Civil War. In 1877 she received a medical degree from the Cleveland University of Medicine and Science (a homeopathic institution) and subsequently practiced medicine in Chicago.

John Martin M.D. Endowment