American Medical Botany
Today Americans all over the world are celebrating
Thanksgiving Day, a celebration which has its roots in community rituals ‘giving
thanks’ for the year’s bountiful harvest.
With this celebration in mind, it seemed appropriate this morning to take a
look through the RCPI Library Catalogue for any books on the subjects of
medicine, America, and nature.
 |
Drawing of Sanguinaria Canadensis or blood root
(American Medical Botany, p. 74) |
One of the most interesting books I found carries
the following lengthy title: American Medical Botany,
being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States,
containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and
uses in medicine, diet and the arts, with coloured engravings, published in
three volumes between 1817 and 1820.
 |
Drawing of Spigelia Marilandica or Carolina Pink Root
(American Medical Botany, p. 141) |
Written by Jacob
Bigelow M.D. (1786-1879), Rumford Professor and Lecturer on Materia Medica and Botany
in Harvard University and architect of Mount Auburn Cemetery, American Medical Botany was one of
America’s first botanical books.
 |
| Title page of American Botany (Dun's Library, RCPI) |
In the preface to the three-volume
work, Bigelow outlined his motives in researching the medicinal plants of
America. Although physicians already had the use of many useful instruments for
the management of diseases, a very small ‘portion of the vegetable kingdom has
been medically examined, [and] there
can be little doubt that a vast number of active substances, many perhaps of
specific efficacy, remain for future inquirers to discover’.
A work like this, Bigelow asserted, could go some way towards the creation of
an indigenous American material medica.
In the chapters that form the three
volumes, Bigelow provides detailed descriptions of the properties and medicinal
uses of dozens of American plants, accompanied by his own beautiful coloured
drawings.
 |
Drawing of Coptis Trifolia or Gold Thread
(American Medical Botany, p. 60) |
American Medical Botany is one of 30,000 library books in the collections of
Dun’s Library, RCPI. If you would like to make an appointment to view this
book, or any other items from RCPI’s library or archival collections, please contact heritagecentre@rcpi.ie.
Fergus Brady,
Project Archivist