Every man his own doctor, or, The poor planter’s physician: Prescribing, plain and easy means for persons to cure themselves of all, or most of the ... of the growth and production of this country

by John Tennent

"_THE most acceptable Service we can render to GOD, is BENEFICENCE to Man. There are Three Ways of benefitting our Fellow Creatures. We may be useful to their Souls, by good Instruction, and good Example. We may be helpful to their Bodies, by feeding the Hungry, cloathing the Naked, and prescribing easy Remedies to the We can aid them in their Fortunes, by encouraging of Industry, by relieving the Distrest, and doing all the kind Offices we are able, to our Neighbours. These are the several Ways of improving the Talents our Maker has entrusted us with; and we must every one expect, hereafter to give an Account, how we have employ'd them."
This is an edition of a classical book first published in the eighteenth century.

Genres: Nonfiction

69 pages, Unknown Binding

First published March 4, 2015

About the author

John Tennent (c. 1700–1748), English physician, came to Virginia about 1725. His Essay on the Pleurisy (Williamsburg, Va., 1736), advocating seneca rattlesnake root, excited lively controversy in America and abroad. Returning to London in 1737, he began to prepare a book on the diseases of Virginia; his proposals for printing it, issued when he returned to America, 1738, appeared in Pa. Gaz., Aug. 3, 1738, and later; but subscriptions fell short of the required 1,000, and it did not appear. BF also reprinted Every Man his own Doctor in The American Instructor (Phila., 1748), and a German translation was published by BF and Johann Boehm in 1749. For Tennent’s later publications, most of which continued his crusade for snakeroot, and for his troubled career in London, see DAB and Wyndham B. Blanton, Medicine in Virginia in the Eighteenth Century (Richmond, Va., 1931). Tennent went to Jamaica in 1740 but soon returned to England, where he died Oct. 27, 1748.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guide to home medicine was widely available and followed in colonial times. Benjamin Franklin is reputed to have been among its printers and distributors. The book offered a cure for everything from “vapours” (“Hysterick fits”) to cancer.

Cures feature frequent, repeated bloodletting, teas of herbs, abstinence from meat, horse riding,

Medicine in that century could only deal with symptoms, because true antibiotics--indeed the germ theory of diseases--was in the future. Sometimes getting symptoms under control and letting the body heal itself sufficed, other times not. A disturbing number of treatments including repeated blood letting.

For example: To prevent “consumption” (tuberculosis) “never suffer a cough to dwell upon you; but bleed in time, and purge gently once a week. In the meantime, eat not one morsel of meat, nor drink anything stronger than a little sound cider: And to make the game sure, ride every fair day, and breathe as much as possible in the open air.”

Entertaining, if gruesome. I think our medical care is better now, though some of the home cures you see on Facebook make you wonder. Thank God for antibiotics and vaccines.

[Katie Horan · Rating 3 out of 5]

a truly fun read because of how batshit it is. fun fact: tennent also fought with local virginian physicians in the virginia gazette about his essay on the pleurisy, and was a super controversial figure for promoting snakeroot