American Medical Botany (Boston, 1817-1820) (review)

Just what can be said in usefully reviewing a reprint, in this case a CD-ROM? I ask and respond to four questions:

1. 1. Is it worth reissuing? Yes. Jacob Bigelow's American Medical Botany is accepted as a "classic," in large part through its promotion of native remedies. ("In the present state of our knowledge [wrote Bigelow] we could not well dispense with opium and ipecacuanha, yet a great number of foreign drugs . . . for which we pay a large annual tax to other countries might in all probability be superseded by the indigenous products of our own" [p. viii].)

2. 2. Does the work have additional special features? Yes. As Philip Weimerkirch's introduction states, it is "notable as one of the first fully color-printed books published in America, whose innovative technology continues to merit investigation" (p. 1).

3. 3. Is it a rare book? Yes. Although Bigelow's accounts of sixty plants in three volumes are available in major historical libraries, the work is not readily accessible to scholars. Its greater availability will serve a range of historians: Bigelow's interests extended beyond medicinal uses to diet and the arts.

4. 4. Do bonuses exist with the CD-ROM version? Yes. Offsetting the joy that everyone must find in turning the pages by hand, we now have the ability to search rapidly. Various questions can be readily pursued. For instance, in view of Bigelow's reputation for promoting native remedies, did he derive much of his information from aboriginal people? In fact, a word search for "Indian" and "Aboriginal" revealed little sense of much influence, apart from a few references to reports from, among others, travelers William Bartram and Peter Kalm.

Such a paucity of information on native usage contrasts with an extraordinarily wide array of individuals quoted by Bigelow, many from across the Atlantic. I was particularly interested in the numerous American writers referenced, many of whom have not reached the pantheons of medical histories. In fact, many names are mentioned only once by Bigelow, such as Dr. Anderson of New York, and Professor Ives of New Haven who wrote to Bigelow in 1816 about bloodroot. This was not the Dr. A. W. Ives of New York who was commended by Bigelow for his work on hops that promised economic improvement in the brewery industry.

What is also striking, and certainly deserving of further study, is the stamp of approval that Bigelow accorded some of the information he received. Thus, with respect to hemlock for jaundice, he wrote: "Dr Fisher, President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in his paper on the narcotic vegetables, bears unequivocal testimony in favour of the efficacy of Hemlock in this complaint" (p. 119). Such bestowals, with the authority of Bigelow's own reputation, give some indication of the potential of the three volumes to shape therapeutic practice at the time. To be able to pursue quickly what would otherwise necessitate tedious and time-consuming searches in a library copy (with one eye on closing times!) makes the CD-ROM of inestimable value.