Complete Herbalist or the People Their Own Physicians by the Use of Nature''s Remedies: Describing the Great Curative Properties Found in the Herbal Kingdom (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Complete Herbalist or the People Their Own Physicians by the Use of Nature''s Remedies: Describing the Great Curative Properties Found in the Herbal Kingdom<br><br>About three hundred years before the Christian era the Ptolemies founded a medical school in Alexandria Egypt. The most famous Of the professors were erasistratus and herophilus who dissected the bodies Of criminals Obtained from government. They Opposed bleeding and violent remedies trusting more to nature than to art. Herophilus paid particular attention to the action Of the heart and was the first to give anything like an accurate description Of the various kinds Of pulse though Praxagoras Of cos the last Of the Asclepiadae had before Observed the relation which exists between the pulse and the general condition of the system. From that time to the present the pulse has been as it were the guide for determining the character ex tent and probable cause Of the disease af?icting the patient and the description Of treatment required to produce a change for the better. I however derive great assistance from the temperament age sex etc.<br><br>We pass over the days Of the Dogmatics and Empirics the Pneu matics and other sects of medical practitioners (who though they em ployed herbal remedies as a general rule were strangely given to the promulgations Of theories and doctrines utterly at variance with the most ordinary ratiocinations Of Philosophy and Reason) until we come to the period when galen first made his appearance at the request of the Emperor aurelius. Galen was a native of Pergamos born a.d. 130 having traveled much and written largely on Subjects directly or indirectly connected with medicine before settling himself at Rome. He was entirely independent in his Opinions paid very little respect to authority and so great was his learning and wisdom and rare skill in medicine that he came to be regarded by many as an Oracle. Thoroughly educated in all the schools Of philosophy he selected from them all except the Epicurean which he totally rejected. His treatment Of disease was principally by Herbal remedies. From Galen have sprung the sect that is now generally known as Eclectics who do not confine remedies exclusively to the herbal practice but employ many Of the mineral substances upon which the Allopathic and Homoeopathic sys tems of medicine Of the present day are based.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.