Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 867

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791) Primitive physic; or, An easy and natural method of curing most diseases. Sutton 1805 26th ed. 118 pp. 17.6 cm.

Wesley, English evangelist, theologian, and founder of the Methodist Societies, was intensely interested in medicine and patterned many of his personal health care habits after the advice found in Cheyne's works, especially his Health and long life (see No. 761). As the Methodists' chief tutor, Wesley undertook to supply them with an abundance of inexpensive and worthwhile literature. He freely reprinted and abridged the writings of others or produced his own as circumstances warranted. In addition to his religious works, Wesley published this medical handbook, first in 1747, and followed by twenty-two other editions in his lifetime and nine after his death. An interesting combination of good sense and superstition, it is a collection of remedies for the treatment of diseases, symptoms, and accidental injuries. In this edition, Wesley's preferred remedies are marked with an asterisk.

See Related Record(s): 761

Cited references: Cushing W136 (1801 ed.); Osler 4214 (1st ed., 1747); Waller 10238 (1832 ed.)