Cover of 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 — A Closer Reading

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 — A Closer Reading

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In Category - Medicine

Authors: Young, Amelia Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2017 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Botany, Medical; Medicine, Popular; Materia medica, Vegetable; Women physicians Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 59,755

Reading time 260 min

Text sections 28

The catalog record for 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 — A Closer Reading provides practical reading context through 59,755 words, 4 hr 20 min estimated reading time, and 28 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 23.7 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Botany, Medical,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #53875

Amelia Young's 1858 herbal guide combines botanical medicine, domestic recipes, and physiological explanations, drawing on nearly forty years of practice. The text's diction and structure reveal a pragmatic, female-authored voice that blends empirical observation with traditional remedies, targeting women as both practitioners and patients.

Editorial Edition Score 4.8/5

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Title & short description10 pts
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File: pg53875

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HER EXPERIENCE AND PRACTICE FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS;

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 US STRUCTURE.

DEDICATED EXCLUSIVELY TO HER SEX.

ILLUSTRATED WITH DESCRIPTIVE ENGRAVINGS.

_I’ll be as happy as my fortune will permit, and make others so, if I can._

ROCHESTER, N.Y.: PRESS OF A. STRONG & CO., DEMOCRAT AND AMERICAN OFFICE. 1858.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858

In the Clerk’s Office of the Northern District of New York.

STEREOTYPED BY CHAS. H. M’DONELL, ROCHESTER. N. Y.

Alder, Black (See Errata below.), 16 Do Dwarf, 24

Anti-bilious Physic, 54, 57, 98 Do Pills, 49 Do Female Pills, 59

Appetite, loss of, 12, 32, 101, 104 Do Regular, 17

Asthma, 21, 30, 38, 39, 55, 83, 105

Back, pains in the, 18, 28, 34 Do weak, 87

Balmory, or Snakehead, 12

Balsam of Honey, 96 Do Fir, 23 Do of Life, 46

Bathing, 140 Do Anodine Solution, 92

Beer, 86 Do Indian, 60

Beggar Lice, (Nervine), 12

Beth, or Pappoose Root, 28

Bitters, Anti-scorbutic, 55

Bladder, derangement of, 23, 31, 32 Do Stone in, 77

Bleeding, to stop, 69

Blisters, Butternut for, 41

Blood, cleansing the, 13, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29, 34, 82, 86 Do Root, 95 Do Spitting, 25, 36, 105 Do to warm the, 81, 93 Do Vomiting of, 48

Bloody Flux, 27, 53, 89

Bowels, complaints of the, 20, 90 Do Inflammation of, 47 Do Pains in the, 22, 41 Do the, 161 Do to regulate, 63 Do weak, 19, 35

Breast, Cancer in the, 36 Do Pain in the, 85 Do Sore, 23, 76, 82

Bruises, poultice for, 23, 68

Burns or Scalds, 25, 33, 70, 77, 78

Cancer, 36, 65, 68, 75, 98, 99

Cathartic, 28, 29, 32

Chest, formation of, 115 Do Pains in the, 17, 24

Children, Diet of, 177

Cholic, Billious, 23, 24 Do Wind, 12, 19, 23, 39, 72, 80, 111

Chronic Disorders, 27

Consumption, 33, 78, 84, 86

Consumptive Complaints, 62, 71 Do Females, 85 Do Persons, 19, 25, 38, 97

Cordial, Neutralising, 90

Cough, 11, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 34, 44, 63, 66, 104 Do Drops, Acid, 50 Do Mixture, 43, 72, 91 Do Powders, 51, 53 Do Syrup, 84

Debility or Languor, 12, 20, 22, 34, 39, 86, 104

Decline of Life in Females, 28

Digestion, 19, 55 Do Time of, 184

Digestive Organs, 159

Dragon’s Claw, or Fever Root, 15

Dropsy, 14, 24, 26, 31, 32, 47, 49, 65, 61, 73, 95, 108 Do Hydrogogue purge for, 25 Do of the Brain, 54 Do of the Chest, 48

Dysentery, 21, 27, 28, 36, 37, 39, 42, 59, 98

Emetic, 21, 28, 29, 42, 109 Do Anti Drops, 52, 93

Eruptions, Cutaneous, 19

Essences, to make, 58

Evergreen, or Wintergreen, 13

Extracts, ordinary, 220

Eyes Inflammation of the, 13, 24, 63

Eyes, Film on the, 107 Do Sore, 32, 57, 58 Do Weak, 56

Female Difficulties, 14, 22, 28 Do Weakness, 87

Fevers, 11, 17, 19, 20, 24, 32, 33, 34, 93 Do Cathartic for, 110 Do Indian Remedy for, 111 Do Intermittent, 39 Do Root, 15 Do Sores, 51 Do Typhoid, 139

Fits, 32, 40, 82, 86, 106

Fœtus, Development of, 5

Food, remarks on, 181, 184

Fruit, to Preserve, 58

Gall Cake, to loosen the, 21

Gestation, period of, 9

Goitre, or Adam’s Apple, 93

Golden Rod, 31 Do Seal, 32

Gravel, 18, 23, 24, 43, 95

Hair, to promote the growth of the, 98

Headache, 17, 20, 24, 44, 79, 91

Head, Bald, 25 Do Cold in, 24

Herbs, Plants, etc., 191

Hips, Basket of the, 126

Hives in Children, 100

Indian Women, hardihood of, 112

Inflammation, 25, 33, 34, 51, 62

Jaundice, 12, 23, 24, 32, 33, 36, 102

Joints, Swelling of, 69 Do Weak, 77

Kidneys, 19, 21, 23, 31, 32, 125

King’s Evil, 24, 70, 86

Liver, Derangements of, 20 Do Inflammation of, 48 Do to Strengthen, 93 Do the, 123, 161

Lungs, Soreness of, 24, 30

Marks on Children, 84

Medicamentum, Young’s, 90

Menses, Obstructed, 36 Do Suppression of, 13, 17, 47

Menstrual Discharge, 19

Mercury to cleanse from the blood, 101

Milk, or Silk Weed, 26

Monthly Courses, 23, 24

Mortification, 19, 80

Mustard Seed, black and white, 17

Nervous Fevers, 15, 17

Nerve Ointment, 42, 91

Nose, bleeding at the, 49

Oak, white, black and yellow, 31

Ointment, Rheumatic, 45 Do Vegetable, 50, 56, 102 Do Universal, 92

Ovaries, affections of, 28 Do the, 127

Pains, Bathing for, 64, 98

Peach Leaves, (for Cough), 11

Perspiration, 18, 19, 28

Peruvian Bark, (See White Oak), 31

Physic, Family, 52, 70

Phlegmatic Temperament, 27, 28

Phthisic, 21, 25, 41, 81

Pills, Antibillious, 49, 52, 96 Do Family, 108

Pleurisy, 31, 103, 105

Powders, Mandrake, 49, 51 Do Compound, 81 Do Soda, 81

Properties Explained, 223

Purge, 16, 25, 33, 39

Queen of the Meadow, 21

Relax, 45, 51 Do in Children, 59

Relaxation of the Solids, 84

Rheumatism, 12, 13, 26, 27, 33, 36, 43, 46, 69, 76, 78, 80, 94 Do Chronic, 94 Do Inflammatory, 29 Do Outward application for, 24

Rheumatic Powders, 59

Rheumatism, its causes, 149

Roots and Herbs, how to collect and Preserve, 135

Ruptures, 36, 97, 100

Salt Rheum, 46, 54, 75, 82, 106

Salve, 42, 59, 68, 96

Sarsaparilla Root, 27 Do Syrup, 88

Scrofula, 26, 27, 30, 33, 35

Scrofulous Sores, 96, 99, 111

Single-celled Berry, 14

Sinews, Shrunk, 23, 25

Snake Root, black, 19 Do do Canada, 27

Sore Mouth, 22, 29 Do Eyes, 23

Sores, all kinds, 23, 24, 25, 33, 56, 92, 93

Southern Wood, or Old Man, 17

Spasmodic Affections, 18

Sprains and Bruises, 47, 90, 94

Strengthening, 31, 86

Stimulant, 17, 26, 27, 28, 32

Stimulating Embrocation, 80

Stomach, Complaints of, 32 Do Sickness of, 13, 68 Do Soreness of, 24, 39, 41, 49, 82 Do Sour, 50 Do Tincture, 63 Do The, 160 Do Weak, 85

St. Anthony’s Fire, 93, 109

Swellings, 23, 25, 36, 68, 72, 73, 87, 91

Syrup, Alterative, 65 Do Cleansing and Strengthening, 60 Do Flax Seed, 84

Teeth, Aching or Decaying, 25 Do Insensible to pain, 64

Testicles, Rupture of, 100

Thoroughwort, (Fevers), 11, 44

Throat, Sore, 41, 109

Tincture, Dewey’s, 80

Toothache, 12, 13, 24, 47, 64

Turnip, Indian, 28, 95, 97

Ulcers, 23, 28, 30, 36, 63, 68, 73, 77, 92, 99

Urinary Organs, diseases of, 18

Urine, Flow of, 19, 32, 37 Do Incontinency of, 48 Do Regulator of, 21, 31 Do Retention of, 18, 25, 24, 28

Viscera, Obstruction of, 20 Do Secretions of, 31

Vermifuge, 22, 26, 35

Waters, Double-distilled, 222

Weakness, 35, 99, 103

Whooping Cough, 75, 104

Wine, Currant, 88 Do Elder, 91

Womb, and Appendages, 126 Do Diseases of, 129 Do Derangement of, 35 Do Falling of, 22, 28

Worms, 12, 17, 32, 35, 41, 43, 64, 74, 101

=ERRATA.=--The two line paragraph near top of page 17, should follow the fourth paragraph on page 16,—“for children, in coughs and costiveness, &c.,” should be followed by “the above is also very good for children, &c.”

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.

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Amelia Young opens her 1858 Guide to Health with a dedication “exclusively to her sex,” immediately establishing a gendered authority rare in nineteenth-century medical writing. The book’s subtitle—promising “true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States”—signals a systematic approach to botanical medicine. Yet the text’s structure is anything but uniform: it moves from a detailed index of ailments and remedies to sections on physiology, recipes, and even a table of digestion times derived from Dr. Beaumont’s experiments. This hybrid form reflects Young’s dual identity as a practitioner and a compiler, weaving personal experience with borrowed scientific data.

Diction of the Domestic Practitioner

Young’s language oscillates between technical botanical terms and plainspoken household advice. She refers to thoroughwort and boneset interchangeably, acknowledging regional naming while asserting her own nomenclature. Her instructions are precise: “take a handful each of thoroughwort, tanzy, and tamarack bark, one ounce culver root, half ounce mandrake, ten grains sassafras bark, and half ounce angelica seed.” The specificity of weights and measures—grains, ounces, wine glasses—suggests a readership accustomed to compounding medicines at home. Yet she also uses colloquial phrases like “keep hot nine hours” and “drink every morning, a wine glass of the remainder cold,” blending formal recipe structure with conversational timing. This diction positions Young as an intermediary between learned herbals and the everyday kitchen.

Voice and the Authority of Experience

Young frequently invokes her own practice: “I once saw an instance of this kind” introduces a firsthand account of an Indian chief’s fever treatment at the Lake of the Two Mountains. Such anecdotes serve as evidence, replacing citations of other physicians. Her voice is confident but not dogmatic; she offers alternatives (“if it does not operate in half an hour, give another”) and adjusts doses for age (“if the child is too young to take this dose, give less”). The repeated phrase “take a tablespoonful nights, inwardly, and half a wine glass full mornings” creates a rhythmic, almost liturgical pattern. This first-person, experiential tone distinguishes her work from contemporary male-authored medical texts that relied on institutional credentials.

Structure as a Reflection of Practical Needs

The book’s organization—index, then sections on physiology, herbs, recipes, and miscellany—mirrors the way a household healer might consult it: by symptom first. The index lists ailments alphabetically, from “Abdomen” to “Wind, or Cholic,” each with page numbers. Yet the table of contents added by the transcriber reveals a more thematic arrangement: “Development of the Fœtus,” “Family Herbal,” “Recipes,” “Physiology,” “Roots and Herbs,” “Miscellany,” “Prejudice.” This juxtaposition of scientific and folk categories suggests Young saw no contradiction between them. The inclusion of a table “showing the mean time of digestion” from Dr. Beaumont’s experiments indicates her willingness to incorporate mainstream physiology, even as her remedies rely on indigenous plants like princes pine and red ozier.

Recurring Details in the Remedies

Certain ingredients appear repeatedly: culver root, mandrake, angelica seed, and snake root form a core pharmacopoeia. Young often prescribes the same base—whiskey, rum, or brandy—for tinctures, reflecting the era’s reliance on alcohol as a solvent and preservative. Her treatments for disparate conditions share structural similarities: a decoction for rickets uses “brake root, or female fern” boiled in water, while a lumbago remedy employs the same root in whiskey. This repetition suggests a limited materia medica applied flexibly. Notably, she includes an “Indian Remedy for Fevers” involving a sweat bath and cold plunge, which she witnessed and describes in ethnographic detail. Such passages reveal Young’s openness to indigenous knowledge, though she frames it within her own observational framework.

Readers approaching Madame Young’s Guide to Health should attend to the interplay between its prescriptive recipes and the author’s narrative voice. Young’s willingness to name her sources—whether Dr. Beaumont or an unnamed Indian chief—offers a window into how nineteenth-century women practitioners constructed medical authority. The book rewards those who read it not as a fixed system but as a living document of domestic medicine, where the same handful of herbs can treat carbuncles, fevers, and lumbago, depending on the hand that prepares them.

What stayed with me about Amelia's herbal wasn't the recipes themselves, but how quietly she trusted her own observations over nearly forty years. That same trusting voice surfaces in Weeds used in medicine — Themes and Context, where the plants feel less like ingredients and more like old companions she'd learned to listen to. It's a gentle, lingering feeling, like recognizing a friend's handwriting.