Electricity A Science as a Curative Specific

A New Philosophy of Matter, Showing the Identity of all the Imponderables and the influence which electricity exerts over matter in producing all chemical changes, all motion and rest... With important additions, corrections, and an extensive appendix upon electricity as curative agent [Electricity A Science as a Curative Specific]

Hardcover 8vo, 366pp. Not illustrated. Good with nibbling to the cloth at the bottom of the rear joint, sunning and mottling to spine, general rubbing and bumping. Previous owner's note of Thomas E. Naylor, having purchased the book over a century after its publication, remarks "The science fiction like descriptions given throughout... are now fact, and common knowledge at that!"

"New and Revised" edition of The New Philosophy of Matter by George Brewster (1843), which is reprinted in full and followed by Stevens' own lengthy treatise--the main attraction here. First edition thus. Stevens claims the book was never circulated: "Although very much needed for unavoidable reasons it has never been brought to view for the benefit of the world." He claimed "all but a few copies had been used for packing, or sold as waste paper," though there appear to be more surviving copies of that printing on the market than there are of this reprint. No reference to A.H. Stevens could be found outside of catalog listings for the present volume. From the text, we know that Stevens moved to Philadelphia around 1862 and was already promoting the use of electricity in treating disorders. Presumed to be a man, he called himself an "electropathist" and a "physician among physicians" but equated medicines to poisons that are only effective when they influence the electrical activity of the "vital force." He both welcomed the emergence of electrical treatments but lamented the lack of understanding with which they were promoted by people more interested in commerce than science. His own theories seem to be a mixed bag in terms of accuracy, and he's included an appendix "How Telegrams are Sent" and a very long footnote refuting Emma Willard's theory of circulation. Many remarks on the practice and study of medicine in Philadelphia. Rare item, 5 copies in OCLC.