1792 BESTSELLING HOME HEALTH GUIDE. Domestic Medicine: or a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases, by Regimen and Simple Medicines, with an Appendix, containing a Dispensatory for the Use of Private Practitioners TOGETHER WITH Melanie King, Can Onions Cure Ear-Ache?, Bodlean Library, Oxford University, 2012 - [an abridgement of the 13th edition offered here with publishing history]

London: W. Strahan, T. Cadell in the Strand; and J. Balfour and W. Creech in Edinburgh, 1792. Thirteenth edition.
1792 13th EDITION OF DR. WILLAM BUCHAN'S BESTSELLING HOME HEALTH GUIDE THAT SOLD 19 EDITIONS IN AUTHOR'S LIFE, TRANSLATED INTO 7 LANGUAGES.
8 1/2 inches tall, 3 inches thick hardcover, full leather binding, rebacked with leather spine and red leather label with faded gilt title, new marbled endpapers xxxvi, 712 pp, [34 pp index]. Abrasions to covers, corners worn, scattered light foxing, browning to page edges, binding tight, pages unmarked except for occasional marginal pencil notations; overall very good minus in custom archival mylar (truncated) cover.
WILLIAM BUCHAN (1729 –1805) was a Scottish physician and author. He is best known for his work Domestic Medicine: or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines, which provided laypeople with detailed descriptions of the causes and prevention of diseases. Buchan's goal was one of "laying medicine more open to mankind." With over 80,000 copies and 19 editions sold in Buchan's lifetime, it was one of the most popular medical texts in Europe and even in the European colonies in the Americas, and was translated into almost every major European language. Upon entering Edinburgh University in 1749, he enrolled in the School of Divinity under pressure from his family. He soon replaced his theological studies with studies in mathematics, botany, and ultimately medicine. He completed his studies in medicine in 1758 after approximately nine years at the university. After leaving the university, he started a small practice in rural Yorkshire before being appointed as a physician at the Foundling Hospital in Ackworth, Yorkshire in 1759. At the Foundling Hospital, he worked frequently with children. In 1761 he wrote his medical dissertation, On the Preservation of Infant Life, arguing that far too many infants were dying in Great Britain each year. There was little response to his work. Later that year, Parliament stopped funding the Foundling Hospital, so Buchan took up a practice in Sheffield from 1761 until 1766, when he returned to Edinburgh. William Buchan published his famous work Domestic Medicine in 1769. The first edition sold for only six shillings and was a great success. In 1772, Buchan became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. ALSO INCLUDED: an abridgement of the 13th edition offered here with publishing history edited by Melanie King, Can Onions Cure Ear-Ache?, published by the Bodlean Library, Oxford University, 2012 (fine in dust jacket). FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The Bodleian Library holds multiple versions of Domestic Medicine in both book and electronic formats. The basic text for most subsequent editions was set by 1774, but for the purposes of this edition I have used the thirteenth edition, printed in London by A. Strahan and T. Cadell in 1792. By this date, most of the changes had been made and a comprehensive list of herbs and remedies was included at the back." (Inventory #: 1561)