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Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex. cover

Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex.

Chapter 3: PREFACE.
By Amelia Young
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About This Book

Practical 19th-century domestic medical manual and family herbal for women that blends accessible anatomy and physiology with guidance on pregnancy, child care, diet, and common illnesses. It catalogs indigenous roots and herbs, explains their properties, and gives recipes and preparations — tinctures, poultices, ointments, waters, and pills — for respiratory, digestive, rheumatic, menstrual, and skin conditions, plus fevers, convulsions, and wounds. Additional sections include tables on digestion and gestation, household remedies, procedural advice for bleeding and poultices, and an index of plants with synonyms and recommended uses.

PREFACE.

MY Beloved Sex:

I have taken upon myself a great task, at the age of sixty-two, through love for you and the rising generation. The Scripture teaches,—Where much is given, much will be required; that is the case with me. Nature’s gift was liberal, and this gift I had ample means to cultivate.

I left Boston, my native place, and kind parents, at the age of fifteen, for Montreal, there to acquire and master languages which my native home could not bestow. Here I devoted three years to French and Latin, as they were absolutely necessary for my advancement in Philosophy and Botany. I remained here some years, and frequently visited the Iroquois tribe, learning much of them in the healing art.

I began to keep a regular manuscript of all I could possibly learn from every tribe and nation, not allowing myself to be biased by prejudice.

My beloved friends, daily do I read books that are styled Herbal, on the Virtues of Roots, Herbs, &c., and have not only discovered in them an almost innumerable quantity of errors and defects, but also a multiplicity of directions for their uses which my own knowledge and practice proves ineffectual in the cure of the complaints to which these treatisers have directed their applications.

I likewise give you a description of the human body, or, in a word, the Living Animal, easy and comprehensive, that it may be understood by every one who reads it. I have written it in a plain, easy and familiar style, adapted to all capacities. It is the sincere wish of my heart, that it may prove a blessing to all.

MADAME YOUNG, M. D.

Plate 1.