188

Jonas Rishel.

The Indian Physician, Containing a New System of Practice, Founded on Medical Plants.

New Berlin, PA: Joseph Miller, 1828
xii, 132 pages. 12mo, contemporary ½ calf over patterned boards, minor wear; foxing, pages 101-104 bound upside down; later inscription on front free endpaper, early inked owner's stamp on title page.

  • Notes: First edition. One of the earlier examples of the 19th-century medical texts purporting to draw on American Indian traditional healing practices. It was issued in response to the perceived "inattentiveness of many who profess to prescribe aid to the sick" (page iii). Among the testimonials is a man whose wife nearly died after being treated with large doses of mercury, but was saved by Rishel's "steam and vegetable medicine" (page viii). Shaw & Shoemaker 35045. 

    This was a family copy. The original owner was Michael S. Rissel (1813-1884) of Muncy, PA (about 25 miles from New Berlin), who was a first cousin once removed of the author; they both descended from German immigrant Johann "Hans" Michael Rishell (1712-1759), who died in Lehigh County, PA. In 1887, Michael's widow Julia A. Beeber Rissel (1813-1896) gave the book to her grandson John Harold Kessler (1864-1943). 
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