The Cherokee Physician Or Indian Guide to Health: As Given by Richard Foreman a Cherokee Doctor; Comprising a Brief View of Anatomy.: With General ... Preserving Health Without the Use of Medicine

Richard Foreman

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Large Print Every new publication on this, as well as other subjects, should have some grounds upon which it can set up its claim to a share of public patronage and support. Had I not believed that this work contained something new and useful, I would not have published it. But, believing as I do, that the "HEALING ART," as known and practiced by the Cherokee Indians, would be welcomely received by and having personally tested the efficacy of their remedies, in the cure of diseases after such remedies as are usually prescribed by the whites had been tried and had utterly failed to effect a cure, I have been induced to commit this system to paper. I am sensible that in so doing, I expose myself to the animadversions of the critics. I am also sensible, of the prejudice which prevails in the minds of many, against Medical works, which are not decked in the flowery drapery of a fine and ornamented style and technical lore. Believing, as I do, that medicine should not be merely a study of curious inquiry, but one of the deepest interest to every son of mortality, I have endeavored to adorn it with plain practical sense, rather than with the fascinating decorations of high standing, unmeaning names, and technical phrases. Those who will take the pains to read and study, will soon be convinced that the All-wise Creator in the infinitude of his mercy, has furnished man with the means of curing his own diseases, in all the climates and countries of which he is an inhabitant; and that a knowledge of the means of curing all common diseases, is not so difficult to obtain as has been generally represented. This book also contains a description of a variety of herbs and roots, many of which are not explained in any other book available. The really valuable materials in medicine, and those which act with the greatest promptitude and power, in the cure of diseases, are few and simple, and easily to be procured in all countries. The Aborigines of our country found the means of mitigating and curing their diseases, in the uncultivated wilds which gave them birth,--they knew nothing of foreign drugs, but with roots, herbs, and plants found in their own country, they mitigated and cured the diseases most common to that country. That their knowledge of the medical properties of the roots and herbs common in the American forest, is superior to that possessed by the whites will hardly be denied. Neither will it be denied by those acquainted with their success, in treating disease, that they have, in many instances, performed cures, by means of roots, herbs and plants, after the usual remedies prescribed by white physicians had failed. The articles employed by them in the cure of diseases, are simple, and principally such as can be procured in this country. The time is not far distant, when most; if not all the diseases, of our country, will be healed without the use of calomel and mercurial preparations, and when foreign drugs will be disused by administering physicians.