A history of botanical remedies, hypnotic suggestion, water cures, skeletal manipulation and other health innovations of nineteenth-century America, and the surprising ways they influenced modern medicine.
Despite rampant scientific innovation in various arenas in 19th century America the medical field still adhered to ancient healing methods like bleeding induced vomiting blistering and sweating patients. Facing such horrors at the hands of traditional doctors and often finding the methods ineffective many patients ran with open arms to burgeoning practices promising new ways to cure their ills.
