Introduction to the scanned version.

This copyright-free scanned version is presented by the Medical Herbalism journal and by medherb.com
This is the .html version. You'll find the .pdf version on Paul Bergner's site: http://medherb.com/cook/home.htm

Cook's classic Physiomedicalist Dispensatory is a reflection of the pinnacle of ninteenth century North American herbalism as it evolved from a blending of Native American and European household medicine, through the vitalist underpinnings, codification, and popularization of Thomsonian herbalism, and finally to its elevation to a coherent system of medicine with a materia medica of more than 500 plants in Physiomedicalism. Cook was perhaps the last great American herbal doctor who mastered the arts of both clinical herbalism and herbal pharmacy. After the 1860s, physicians of the other schools began relying on pharmaceutical companies for their medicines rather than making the medicines themselves. By the 1920's the Eclectic physicians had for the most part never seen the original plant material their medicines were made of. Cooks balanced mastery is reflected in the equal balance in his monographs on botany, clinical use, and pharmacy.

--Paul Bergner.

I like Cook because he concentrates on mild herbs, tonics, long-term herbs, and non-drastic measures. This book has already, after a very short look-through, given me some more uses for common and mild weeds, some more hints on how things like Epilobium work, and some more herbs to use when, say, the gut or the kidneys need strengthening.

This work is also online on Paul Bergner's site: http://medherb.com/cook/home.htm. There, you'll find it both as html files and as a single .pdf file. Why did I put it up on this site, too? Because Paul said he likes it to be on more than one site - he wants it to be available forever.

A facsimile reprint of the original is available from Eclectic Medical Publications.

--Henriette.

The Physiomedical Dispensatory, 1869, was written by William Cook, M.D.
It was scanned by Paul Bergner at http://medherb.com