Talks to My Patients: Hints on Getting Well and Keeping Well.
New York: M.L. Holbrook Co., 1870. First edition, and as such, uncommon in commerce. This book went through eight editions to 1882. An enlarged edition, with extra material ("Letters to Ladies on on Health, Education, Society, etc.”) appeared in 1895. Frontispiece “Elmira Water Cure.”. Cloth is rubbed and lightly soiled, but title is bright. Gilt spine. Dark brown endpapers. Strong binding. Pages are bright and clean. A very good + copy. Publisher’s red-brown cloth titled in gilt. Twelvemo. 228 + 16-24 pp publisher’s catalogue + [2 publisher’s ads]. Item #17952
Dr. Rachel Brooks Gleason, M.D. (1820 – 1905) graduated from Syracuse Medical College with her medical degree in 1851 and became the fourth woman doctor in the United States. Gleason was a practitioner of both conventional medicine and alternative treatments, and maintained an interest in holistic practices (diet, exercise, and healthy living as medicine) and pseudoscientific treatments (like “water cures”) throughout her career. In 1852, Dr. Gleason and her husband established a treatment center, the Elmira Water Cure, in New York; the center operated as the Gleason Sanitarium between 1893 and 1903 and as the Gleason Health Resort from 1904 onward.
Dr. Gleason’s combination of conventional medical treatments and holistic practices led her to great success treating women, especially pregnant women and those who had recently given birth.
She was also a dress reformer and supporter of suffrage, abolition, and free public schooling. Her success in medicine motivated many other women, like her daughter Adele and her sister Zippie Brooks Wales, to earn M.D.s and practice medicine.
Price: $450.00